71 



CHAPTEK VI. 



START FOR THE HIGHER RANGES THE CHIPLA MOUNTAIN THE TAHR 

 ITS FLESH AND BONES USED AS MEDICINE AN ENORMOUS WILD 

 CAT" PEEPSA " FLIESAGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURISTS ON THE 

 HIGHER RANGES WILD MEN OF THE WOODS THEIR MANNERS AND 

 CUSTOMS AN ADAM AND EVE OF THE PERIOD MY FIRST DAY'S 

 SPORT ON THE CHIPLA A PICTURESQUE BIVOUAC EXORCISING AN 

 EVIL SPIRIT A LONG AND WEARY CLIMB BEAUTIFUL RHODODEN- 

 DRONS HORNED ARGUS-PHEASANT WE TRY A STALK FOR PORK 

 AN UNCOMFORTABLE BED, AND THE WAY WE IMPROVED IT MOONAL 

 PHEASANTS BAD GROUND AN AWKWARD CLIMB TWO DANGEROUS 

 EXPERIMENTS PRIMITIVE TOBACCO - PIPES LIGHT AND SHADE 

 EFFECTS ON THE MOUNTAINS THE GREAT BEARDED VULTURE 

 THE MUSK-DEER AND ITS SCENT-BAG A SNOWSTORM THE VALLEY 

 OF THE KALLEE OR SARDA. 



HITHERTO my Himalayan experiences had been confined to 

 the middle and lower ranges, and I had regarded those aerial 

 piles and peaks of eternal snow as a sort of distant dream- 

 land, which I hoped some day to find a substantial reality ; 

 and for those who are not cragsmen born, so to speak, it 

 may perhaps be as well to get accustomed and inured to 

 mountain climbing where it is comparatively easy and safe, 

 before attempting to hunt among the dizzy heights and dan- 

 gerous snow-slopes of the higher Himalayas. 



It was the beginning of April when I purposed visiting the 

 Chipla mountain, a gigantic rocky buttress, as it were, of the 

 great frozen wall it seemed to support, and a favourite haunt 

 of the " tahr." This member of the wild-goat family Hemi- 

 tragus jemlaicus of natural history is plentifully distributed 



