Page:Younghusband - Kashmir.pdf/63

 THE GREAT DUCK-SHOOT 35

the white snowy range of the distant Pir Panjal, seemed like the supreme gem of all Kashmir.

This season to the sportsman also is the most enjoyable. For now come in the duck and geese from far-away Siberia, halting here for a time in the lakes and marshes on their way to India, The Maharaja most hospitably places at the disposal of the Resident the shooting on the Hokrar Lake and marsh, which affords some of the best duck- shooting in the world, and it was here that Lord Minto and party shot over 1500 duck in one day in 1906.

The lower slopes of the mountains are at this

season a reddish pink which merges into the rich purply blue of the higher and more distant portion of the range. Soft fleecy clouds and a hazy blue in the sky givé a dreamy tone to the scene. Many kinds of water-fowl lazily disport themselves on the water and among the reeds. The surface is often covered with numerous flat, round leaves and pure white waxy water-lilies with rich yellow centres. And through these the shooters are paddled swiftly to the butts, which are skilfully hidden among the reeds, and here amid clouds of