Glasses can be procured from the anna-in-the-slot
machines which are dotted about."
"This veritable king of the Himal--" (here follows a pageful of regulation
guide-book gush).
"Good sport is to be obtained from the obliging and enterprising manager
of the hotel, Herr Baer. A few rupees will purchase the privilege of
shooting at that monarch of the mountains, the markhor. Start not, fair
tourist, for no danger lurks in the sport. No icy precipices need be
scaled, no giddy gulfs explored, and the only danger which menaces the
bold hunter in the mimic stalk, is that which menaces his shins in the
broken soda-water bottles and sharp-edged sardine tins with which the
summit of Apharwat is strewn."
"As a matter of fact, the consumption of mutton is considerable in the
Hotel Baloo in the tourist season, and the worthy Baer conceived the
brilliant and financially sound scheme of attaching some old ibex and
markhor horns (bought cheap when the old library at Srinagar was swept
away in the last flood) to his live stock, and turning his decorated flock
loose on the mountain's brow, where the sportsman saves him the trouble of
slaughter while enjoying all the excitement and none of the difficulty of
a veritable stalk."
"Another brilliant invention of the good Baer is his 'sunset spectacles.'
These are made with the glasses in two halves--the upper part orange and
the lower one purple. These are simply invaluable to those who have only a
brief half-hour in which to 'do' Apharwat before darting down to catch the
3.
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