GAME IN THE GREAT SNOWS. 303 



remarkable fact in natural history: though of course 

 as at Lake Cholamo, the occurrence of stretches of 

 short grass forms occasional exceptions to the prevail- 

 ing scarcity of vegetation. 



The amount of botanical research however, which 

 it has as yet been possible to make in a country so 

 very little known, and which still remains closed against 

 the entrance of travellers, furnishes very little idea 

 of the possible capabilities of its flora; our knowledge 

 of such matters in Thibet being of the very smallest. 

 We would however venture to suggest that upon bare 

 rocks of great altitudes there may exist large quantities 

 of nutritive lichens, mosses, and other rock-growing 

 plants, which it is just possible may assist in solving 

 this interesting question of how these large numbers 

 of animals exist. Should these plants be found to 

 exist, they would furnish food to game throughout the 

 longest and severest winters, at the highest altitudes, 

 the fierce winds keeping these places to a great extent 

 swept clear of snow, and these plants thrive best in 

 the most exposed places. 



We shall only call attention to one such form of food, 

 which in Lapland, Spitzbergen, and other far northern 

 regions supplies a vast quantity of nutritious food to large 

 animals like the reindeer we refer to the reindeer moss 

 (Cladonia Rangiferind] upon which these animals live 

 and flourish; in fact reindeer though they may exist in 

 good condition upon grass for a time, will only thrive where 

 this moss is. Then there are saxifrages and other plants, 

 which live among eternal snows in polar climates, and 

 there form the sustenance of the arctic game, such as 

 hares, ptarmigan, etc. The probabilities are, as we 

 humbly venture to believe, that among the Thibetan 



