A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



a small nyan, now I was returning with good napoo 

 and goa, and had got three nyan, including one 

 head which alone would have been worth the 

 trouble of many expeditions. Apart from sport, 

 I had experienced a most delightful time ; the 

 weather had been favourable, the natives disposed 

 to show me sport (owing to the kindness of the 

 Wazir and the Chagzot), and none of my party had 

 fallen ill or met with an accident. 



I had made the acquaintance of a singular and 

 most interesting country, and though the descrip- 

 tion of the absolute barrenness of the sun-scorched, 

 wind-swept plains of these altitudes, with their 

 absence of vegetation and their salt-lakes, sounds 

 unattractive enough, yet such is not really the 

 case. There is an extraordinary fascination to 

 the traveller about these vast, silent solitudes, with 

 their many-coloured hills and bright blue lakes, 

 which even the discomfort of scorching sun and 

 ever-present wind (which latter, indeed, is acknow- 

 ledged by all who have been in these parts to be 

 the greatest drawback), and the minor incon- 

 veniences of difficulty in respiration and the 

 occasional absence of fresh water and fuel, fail 

 wholly to dissipate, and I am sure that most men 

 who have travelled in these highlands will look 

 back with pleasure to their memories, to the feeling 

 of freedom and unrestraint with which they roamed 

 over the rolling hills and lofty valleys of Rupshu.* 



* For butterflies of Rupshu, see Appendix 

 223 



