A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



peaks which I take to have been Golden Throne, 

 Gusherbrum, and K 2 . On the opposite side were 

 the organ-pipe mountains, while some three or four 

 thousand feet almost sheer below us, our camp 

 looked like one white speck ; this speck was my 

 tent, the others being too small to be visible. 

 Whilst we were resting here we suddenly espied a 

 flock of eight oorin lying in the middle of the slope 

 below. They were the first that I had been able to 

 observe fairly close and were all females and young 

 rams ; they looked for all the world like red sacks 

 with black heads as they lay there quite comfortable 

 on their sides, with their legs stretched out. They 

 soon got up as the sun gained power, and went off 

 to the shelter of some rocks which projected from 

 the ridge where we were ensconced. This being my 

 first day's stalking with him, Salia was anxious to 

 show me how he could bring me up to game, and 

 off we set down the hillside as fast as we could (a 

 somewhat different pace to that by which we had 

 ascended), and finished by a glissade down a sand 

 slope. Peering cautiously over the edge of some 

 rocks, Salia beckoned to me, and, on my looking 

 over, there, not fifty yards below us, lay the un- 

 suspecting oorin, nor did they perceive us until we 

 threw stones at them, when they were off and out 

 of sight in a minute, but oh ! how I wished that 

 they had been the big rams, instead of ewes and 

 lambs ! 



We reached the tents about 3 P.M., having been 



55 



