THE LAL DAKA. 32*7 



slowly and wearily over those boundless shingly slopes and 

 high table -lands, breathless from their rarefied air, and 

 buffeted by the ever-blowing blast, how often did I ask 

 myself whether the game was really worth all the time 

 and trouble entailed by its pursuit, until, late in the 

 evening, we got back to camp, tired out and dejected. 

 Even the stolid but usually good-tempered Puddoo showed 

 evident symptoms of ill-humour at our fruitless work. 



Some distance to the eastward of Dongpu lies a low 

 range of rounded hills, known as the Lai Daka (red hills), 

 so called from the brick-red colour pervading them. These 

 hills are generally considered to be a favourite resort of 

 Oves Ammon. The range is pretty extensive, but there is 

 only one spot there nearer than the Shipchillum stream, at 

 its eastern extremity, where water is to be found. Thither 

 we now decided to proceed. Several hares, and some 

 coveys of the Hodgsonian partridge, were put up on the way. 

 As we neared our camping-place, on turning a corner in a 

 winding ravine we came suddenly on four ewe Oves, one of 

 which I shot to provide meat. The little stream that ran 

 past the tents was full of diminutive dark-coloured fish, 

 which were easily caught by dragging the water with a 

 sheet, and proved excellent for eating. Hares were 

 numerous in this vicinity, though, strange to say, very 

 wild, but I did not care to disturb the ground by shooting 

 at them. 



The first morning we tried the western part of the range, 

 but saw no fresh sign of large rams. Nothing could we 

 find there except three ewes probably the same lot I had 

 shot one out of the clay before : we therefore proceeded 

 more eastward. About noon we made out four big-horned 

 fellows about two miles off. Whilst working towards these 

 we descried another flock of seven, and most of them good 

 rams too, not far from the first lot. As usual, they were in 

 an open and unapproachable position. Both lots, however, 

 appeared to be feeding up towards the brow of a rise above 



