The Shropshire Examiner and all round the Wrekin advertiser. — 1876-10-06 (Wenlock, Shropshire, England)

TARTAR HEROINES.—Chota Khan and one or two more of our servants had gone on in advance to Shipki, with some of the coolies, in order to have the little mountain tents ready for us on our arrival; but that was not to be accomplished so easily as they expect ed. Instead of tents, a most amusing scene presented itself when we at last got down. But, in order to understand it, the reader must bear in mind that Shipki is situated on the very steep slope of a hill above a foaming river, and that it is by no means a place abundant in level ground. In tact, there is no level ground at Shipki, except the roofs of the houses, which are usually on a level with the streets, and , the narrow terraced fields, the entrances to which are guarded by prickly hedges or stone walls, or cheerers frise of withered gooseberry branches. You cannot pitch a tent on a slope, covered with bit; stones, at an angle of about 45 deg. Consequently the terraced fields presented the only , available places for our tents, and they wore clearly available, many of them being in stubble, while ! there was no immediate intention of digging up the ground. Of course a terraced field was the I place, but here was the difficulty which threw Chota Khan into a state of amazement, perplexity, and wrath. A band of hands me and very powerful young Tartar women—clad in ?rid or black tunics, loose trousers, and immense cloth boots, into which II child of five years old might easily have been stuffed—bad constituted themselves the guardians of these terraced fields, and whenever Chota Khan or any of his companions attempted to enter, they not only placed their bulky persons in the way, but even showed determined fight. Woman tc man, I believe these guardian angels could have given our people a sound thrashing. These angels in big boots were very goodhumonred, and seenied to enjoy their little game innuensely ; but not the less on that account were they pertinacious, and even ferocious, when any attempt was made to get past them. If catching a Tartar be a difficult operation. I should lii etc know what catcbirg a Tartar young woman must be. \ hen we arrived, Mr. Pogell reasoned with them elequently in fluent Tibetan, and they allowed the force of his argumr nt to the extent of admitting that there was no spot ' or us at Shield on which to pitch our tents, except a terraced field; but they parried the obvious conclusion by reminding him that there was a very nice little piece of camping eroend about half-way up the six thousand feet we lad just come down, and that it was little past the middle of the day. I myself tried gently to pass between them, with the most admiring smiles and affectionate demeanour I could summon up for the occasion, and in the circumstances ; but though this seemed to amuse them mu h, it did not at all induce them to allow me to pass; and when we tried other fields, either the same women or a fresh band opposed our entrance. Meanwhile, groups of men, on the roofs of houses and elsewhere. watched the operations without interfering. It really looked as if the intention was to compel us to go bask fr m ishipki without allowing us to stay there even for a night. There was much ingenuity in this plan of setting the Tartar damsels to prevent our camping. Had we used force towards these young persons, there would have been a fair In Scotland, one day this week. Lady Florence reason for the men of the place falling upon us in Cordon Lennox killed a salmon of 151 h., and a grilse a murderous manners—Prom Itliwk,,,on,l's Magazine of 81b. The Countries of March took a fine fish of ferPc' reeeiiec. Mb.. and Lady F. Montague a grilse of 81b. A few years ago, in a village in Scotland, might Pre,: TEA IN RARE Pt: