A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



It was near here that Moorcroft and his party, or 

 rather his companion Trebeck, suffered so severely 

 from the same cause some seventy years before, 

 and which he describes so quaintly but truly : " The 

 whole party suffered much inconvenience from 

 difficulty of breathing. This sensation in moun- 

 tainous countries is not, perhaps, exactly what is 

 understood by similar difficulty in the plains ; it 

 may be best defined a frequent inclination, and, at 

 the same time, a sense of inability, to sigh." 



After traversing the snow for about a mile, and 

 keeping a sharp look-out on to the slopes below, we 

 at length saw a herd of seven nyan in a corrie 

 below us. At this moment an opportune snow- 

 storm came on, and, taking advantage of it, we 

 quickly dropped down the boulder-strewn precipice 

 towards the sheep. The shower soon passed, and, 

 when it cleared, we found ourselves within two 

 hundred yards of the nyan. Eagerly I scanned 

 their heads, but, argue to myself as I would, I could 

 not imagine any horns much over thirty inches. 

 Much disappointed, I came out from beyond my 

 rock and showed myself in the open, and now the 

 most annoying thing happened ; the nyan looked at 

 me for several seconds, and I had actually to wave 

 my pocket-handkerchief before they made off, and 

 then proceed in a leisurely way across a snow-slope 

 in full view. Would they have done this if they 

 had been forty inches? It really almost looked as 

 if they were aware that they were too small to be 



177 N 



