their pushing on to Kokser, a distance which would have been too much for me. The road in many places was nearly as bad as that of the previous day, and there were dangerous descents into deep ravines; but, in part, it was very pleasant, running high above the river over rounded hills covered with flowery grass. The way was also enlivened by flocks of sheep, some laden with salt, and by very civil shepherds from Kúlú and Bussahir. The usual camping-ground was occupied by large flocks, and, for the sake of shelter, I had to camp close above a precipice.

Here I purchased from the Kúlú shepherds a wonderful young dog called Djeóla, a name which, with my Indian servants and the public in general, very soon got corrupted into Julia. This animal did not promise at first to be any acquisition. Though only five or six months old, it became perfectly furious on being handed over to me and tied up. I fastened it to my tent-pole, the consequence of which was that it tore the drill, nearly pulled the tent down, hanged itself until it was insensible, and I only got sleep after somehow it managed to escape. I recovered it, however, next morning; and after a few days it became quite accustomed to me and affectionate. Djeóla was a source of constant amusement. I never knew a dog in which there was so fresh a spring of strong simple life. But the curious thing is that it had all the appearance of a Scotch collie, though considerably larger than any of these animals. Take a black-and-tan collie, double its size, and you have very much what "Julia" became after he had been a few months in my possession. The only differences were that the tail was thicker and more bushy, the jaw more powerful, and he had large dew-claws upon his hind feet.

Black dogs of this kind are called sussa by the

Tibetans, and the red species, of which I had a friend at Pú, are mustang. The wild dog is said to go up to the snow-line in the Himálaya, and to hunt in packs; but I never saw or heard of any, and I suspect their habitat is only the Indian side of the Himálaya. Such packs of dogs undoubtedly exist on the Western Ghauts of India, and they are not afraid of attacking the tiger, overcoming it piecemeal, while the enraged lord of the forest can only destroy a small number of his assailants; but very little is really known about them. An interesting field for the zoologist is still open in an examination of the wild dog of Western India, the wild ass, yak, and horse of Tibet, and the wild camel, which is rumoured still to exist in the forests to the east of Yarkand. I mentioned this latter animal to Dr Stoliczka, who had not heard of it, and thought that such camels would be only specimens of the domestic species which had got loose and established themselves, with their progeny, in the wilderness; but the subject is worthy of investigation, from a scientific point of view; and, perhaps, the Yarkand Mission may have brought back some information in regard to it.

But though Djeóla was most savage on being tied up and transferred to a new owner, there was nothing essentially savage, rude, brutish, or currish in its nature. Indeed it very soon reminded me of the admirable words of Lord Bacon: "Take an example of a Dogy, and mark what generosity and courage he will put on when he is maintained by a man who to him is instead of a god or melior natura." It not only became reconciled to me, but watched over me with an almost ludicrous fidelity, and never got entirely reconciled even to my servants. The striking my tent in the morning was an interference with its private property to which it strongly objected, and if not kept away at that time it would

attack the bigárrís engaged. I also found on getting to Kashmir that it regarded all Sahibs as suspicious characters, to be laid hold of at once; but, fortunately, it had a way of seizing them without doing much damage, as it would hold a sheep, and the men it did seize were good-natured sportsmen. It delighted in finding any boy among our bigárris that it could tyrannise over, but never really hurt him. It was very fond of biting the heels of yaks and horses, and thinking itself ill-treated when they kicked. Its relations with Nako were also amusing. That old warrior had no jealousy of Djeóla, and treated it usually with silent contempt, unless it drew near when he was feeding-a piece of temerity which the young dog soon learned the danger of. But Djeóla would sometimes indulge in gamesome and affectionate fits towards Nako, which the latter never invited and barely tolerated, and which usually resulted in a short and sharp fight, in which Djeóla got speedily vanquished, but took its punishment as a matter of course, and without either fear or anger. I had intended this Himálayan giant sheep-dog for the admirable writer and genial sage, Dr John Brown, who has given us 'Rab and his Friends,' who would have been able to do justice to its merits and compare it with the sheep-dogs of Scotland, but could not arrange that conveniently, and left it with a friend at Púna, where, I fear, it has got into a bad way, the latest report of it being that it "has bitten everybody."

When in the Shigri valley I kept a watch for any symptoms of gold, but did not notice any, and on other grounds should not think it likely that gold exists there in any quantity. But Mr Theodor, a German employed in carrying out the construction of the road over the Barra Lacha Pass, told me that he had found silver ore in this valley. I may mention that the first great glacier

which I crossed has pushed its way into the Chandra, and threatens to close up that river in a very serious manner, as it once did before, which might lead to disasters in the valleys of the Chandra-Bhaga and of the Chenab, similar to those which occurred in the Drance and upper Rhone valleys of Switzerland in 1595 and 1819.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE ALPS AND HIMÁLAYA.

LIVING GLACIER FLOWERS-SUBTERRANEAN GLACIERS-ALPS AND HIMÁLAYA CONTRASTED-SAVAGE GRANDEUR OF THE HIMÁLAYA —SHATTERED PEAKS-THE ALPINE AND HIMÁLAYAN People.

OCCASIONALLY, I think, a living flower is found on Swiss glaciers, but very rarely-whereas on the Himalayan, flowers are by no means uncommon; and the circumstance is easily accounted for by the greater power of the sun in the Himálayan regions, and also by the fact, that when the glaciers get down a certain distance, they are so thickly covered by shattered rocks that they have to work their way, as it were, underground. In Switzerland, one often sees the great ploughshare of a glacier coming down into a green valley and throwing up the turf before it; but usually among the Himálaya, long before the glacier reaches any green valley, it is literally overwhelmed and buried beneath the shattered fragments of rock from the gigantic precipices and peaks around. This slackens, without altogether arresting, its progress; so that in many places the debris is allowed sufficient rest to permit of the growth of grass and flowers. It struck me that in some places there were even what might be called subterranean glaciers; that is to say, that the fallen debris had so formed together and solidified, that the ice-stream worked below it without disturbing the solidified surface.