Here we crossed into a splendid belt of gaunt silver firs, the
first I have seen here; whitish yellow marsh-marigolds and a most vivid
"smalt" blue forget-me-not with large flowers were abundant, also an
oxalis very like our own wood-sorrel.
Emerging from the pines, we crossed a grassy slope covered with tall
primulas (P. _denticulata_) of varying shades of mauve and lilac, and sat
down for a bit among the flowers while the shikaris looked for game. (I
need hardly remark that the noble but elusive beast had appeared on the
scene shortly after I left on Saturday; a Gujar told the shikari, and the
shikari told me, so it must be true.) When we had gathered as many flowers
as we could carry, we strolled back to the camp to watch the sunset
transmute the snowy crest of Haramok to a golden rose.
Yesterday, Tuesday, I left the camp at dawn, and went all over the same
ground, but with no better success, only seeing a couple of bara singh,
hornless now, and therefore comparatively uninteresting from a "shikar"
point of view. After a delightful but bearless ramble I returned to
breakfast, and then we struck camp, and completed the ascent of the pass
over into the Lolab. Arrived at the top, we turned off the path to the
right, and, climbing a short way, came out upon the lower part of the
Nagmarg, a pretty, open clearing among the pines where the grass, dotted
thickly with yellow colchicum, was only showing here and there through the
melting snow.
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