a sharp jerk forwards—­secondly, he mistook a collection of weeds for dry land and jumped out into the water.  This puzzled him immensely, and after he was recovered he sat for a long time gazing with a bewildered air upon the surface of the lake.  Paid a visit in the afternoon to Sumnud Shah for the purpose of replenishing my exchequer, but found his shop better calculated to exhaust it.  I’ll not go there again.

AUGUST 25th.—­Lying down inside my tent I just now heard two crows chuckling and laughing in their way and saying to one another “here’s a joke” or caws to that effect.  You need not laugh at this statement or think that my mind has suddenly become deranged, I merely state a fact.  The language of animals—­dumb creatures as fools call them—­is far more expressive than you imagine, and if you had spent the same time and the same attention that I have in listening to birds notes, you would be able to understand much of their meaning.  Here a conversation carried on in a foreign tongue, one to which you a perfect stranger, will you be able to distinguish words?  No! you will only hear a confusion of sounds possessing apparently but little variety.  But as you become accustomed to it the words and syllables will start out into clear relief; so with birds songs—­at first they will appear to you to be always the same, but they have really different tones and meanings, which you may learn to appreciate by studying them in connection with their acts.  However I heard the crows say “here’s a joke” and guessing I was to be the victim of it, I immediately jumped up and rushed out.  They flew away loudly exulting and I found my match box,—­which I had left on the table broken to pieces and the matches carefully distributed so as to cover as large a space of ground as possible; there is a crow’s joke for you—­there is not much in it as a joke,—­but I introduce it principally to show that birds talk and that I (clever I) can understand them.  I wrote the foregoing to eke out my notes for the day, not having anything particular to record.  When the Baboo called upon me with the startling intelligence, all officers from the Peshawur division ordered immediately to rejoin their respective regiments; this has taken away the greater number of the visitors and very few are now left in Kashmir.  Why don’t I pack up and start?  Well, I forgot to mention a short sentence in the order “except those on medical certificate” which saves me the trouble and annoyance of hurrying back before the expiration of my leave.  It is on account, I suppose, of the little war we have entered on with those hill tribes, and I may be missing honour and glory, wounds and death, neither of which I care to earn from barbarians on the black mountains.  I am sorry for the affair as I fear that from the inaccessibility of the country the best result will barely escape disaster.  This is a strange day.  You see me, one moment trifling with my thoughts for the sake of occupation