CHAPTER X. 



OF the animals at which I might hope to get a 

 shot, the shapoo alone now remained, curious that 

 the first animal that I had seen (in Hushe) was to 

 be the last I was to shoot. I had passed, by much 

 ground well known to be good for shapoo on my 

 march up the Indus (to whose valley and that of 

 the Shyok this species of sheep seems to be more 

 or less confined), but had left it untouched, being 

 on other game intent. Now I was determined to 

 get a good head, though I expected that having 

 left it till the last, I should find this task, as is so 

 often the case, the hardest. H., who had secured 

 a very fine pair of horns before going up to 

 Rupshu, had recommended two good grounds, one 

 on the opposite side of the Indus from Upshi, and 

 the other, the side ravine that joins the main Miru 

 Nalah at the village of that name. As the latter 

 would be on my way, I determined to try it first. 

 We set out from Gya (where I had lost myself in 

 ecstatic contemplation of a tree, the first that I had 

 seen for many a week) on September 5th, and soon 



turned down into the Miru gorge. This ravine, 



224 



