SHEEP AND GOATS 243 



much trouble, and pitched camp, where I found, as I 

 expected, the Jompoon of Dabu Hundes ready to 

 meet me and tell me that I must immediately go 

 back to my own country. This was the usual 

 formula, and I made up my mind to a delay of a day 

 or two until I could settle terms with him. After 

 the usual palaver he said that, as I had come so far, 

 and if I promised not to map his country, I might 

 hunt for ten days. He then went home to Dabu, 

 leaving a couple of Hunias to accompany me and see 

 that I did not go out of bounds that is to say, cross 

 the Sutledge. Having settled so far, I started off 

 for a range of hills on this side of the Sutledge, called 

 Lal-pahar, or red hills, which Surju said was the best 

 beat for big sheep in the district. Although there 

 were lots of burhel about, I made up my mind to 

 leave them alone until I had got what I had wanted 

 of the nobler sheep, Ovis Hodgsoni. 



Three days' marching found me camped at the 

 foot of .the range, and there I commenced business. 

 On foot before daylight, with my single Henry .500 

 Express (the best stalking rifle in those days) in 

 hand, or rather in Surju's hands, I made off for the 

 hill. I may as well say what the ground frequented 

 by the big sheep is like. On crossing the main 

 Himalayan range you get on to avast plateau 15,000 

 feet above the sea, and on this plateau there are 

 various ranges or groups of low, undulating, bare 

 hills, the sky-lines quite unbroken, nothing growing 

 on them but tufts of grass (on which the sheep feed) 

 and wormwood scrub, or rather weeds called burtza. 



