Page:Younghusband - Kashmir.pdf/34

 10 SCENERY AND SEASONS

the snow remains much longer; the moisture in the soil is retained ;. vegetation flourishes; trees grow up; they in their turn still further shade the snow, and with their roots retain the moisture. As a net result one side of a mountain is clothed in dense forest, and on the other there may not bea single tree. Thus it is that on the southern side of Kashmir, that is, on the northward-facing slopes of the Pir Panjal range, there is, as at Gulmarg, dense and continuous forest, while on the northern side of the valley, on the slope of the hill that consequently faces southward, there is no forest except on the slopes of those subsidiary spurs which face northward.

We followed the tracks of a stag through this patch of forest, mostly of hazels, the shikaris picking up little tufts of his hair brushed off in fighting, and pointing out where the stag had nibbled off the young leaf-buds and bark which seem to form the staple food of the deer at this time of year. At last we came to another shikari who said he had seen the stag that very morning. But I suspect this was merely a form of politeness to reinspire my lagging hope, for though I went down and up and along the mountain-side, and spent the whole day there, I saw no stag. Once