

A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



of them would come clown later for a like purpose. 

 Nor was I disappointed, as at about 9 A.M. they 

 began arriving in parties. I shot three and a half 

 brace for food and skins, and then continued on 

 my way. A little farther on we came across a hen 

 sand-grouse with two chicks, from whom she tried 

 to lure us by the method so often adopted by birds, 

 of running on herself apparently wounded and 

 unable to fly. Of course we left the young ones in 

 peace. My pleasure at having bagged the sand- 

 grouse (the only ones, by the way, that I noticed 

 during the whole trip) was somewhat damped when 

 I met Saibra near this spot, and he told me that he 

 had seen a magnificent lynx, and had followed it for 

 some way, hoping that it might lie down and await 

 my arrival ; but it was disobliging and had declined 

 to do so. I should much have liked to have seen, 

 and possibly to have got a shot at, so rare a beast. 

 We soon climbed up this Pass, which presented the 

 features usual in a Ladakhi road ; but there were 

 two familiar denizens of these wastes that I noticed 

 in greater numbers in this particular place than I 

 had done anywhere else. The first of these were 

 the lizards, that swarm everywhere in the stones, 

 and which, owing to their colour and the glare, and 

 the rapidity with which they move, are often almost 

 invisible. The second were the locusts or crickets, 

 of a sort which seems peculiar to Rupshu, and 

 which are to be met with in great numbers in some 

 places. They again are of the same colour as the 



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