306 CHANGCHENMO. 



wild sheep of Tibet) on a sloping hillside far below us. The 

 glass showed they were all rams, and two of them carried fine 

 horns. But they were moving quickly, and the ground they 

 were on was, at any rate, much too bare and open for a stalk ; 

 besides, we had a long tramp before us to our next halting-place, 

 which we did not reach until evening. 



The following day we camped beside the Changchenmo 

 river a tributary of the Shyok which flows over its wide 

 shingly bed between bare, brown, stony slopes, surmounted 

 with precipitous heights of the reddish and ochreous hues 

 often so conspicuous in the colouring of the mountains in this 

 strange land. Hereabout, growing on the sand-hills beside 

 the river, we were surprised and delighted to find plenty of 

 fuel in the shape of a kind of tamarisk called oomboo, which 

 was so dry and inflammable that we had only to put a match 

 to a big bush for the strong wind to at once set it ablaze and 

 keep it smouldering away for hours, always taking care it was 

 to leeward of our tents. 



We now learnt from two Tartars left in charge of supplies 

 belonging to the sportsmen ahead of us, that their masters 

 were, as we expected, in possession of the best hunting locali- 

 ties. After a conference with Changter, he suggested that we 

 should proceed up another long glen north of Changchenmo, 

 named Kugrang, which he said was usually a pretty sure find 

 for wild yaks. The Tartars had informed us that one of the 

 sportsmen was hunting somewhere about the head of this 

 glen ; but as Changter said it was more than twenty miles 

 in length, and that there were one or two long lateral branches 

 leading out of it, we considered that our each occupying one 

 of these would not be poaching. The Major accordingly 

 decided on taking up his quarters in one of them, whilst I did 

 the same in another. 



In order to reach our ground, it was necessary to cross the 

 Changchenmo river. Fording this treacherous stream is 

 always more or less unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous ; 



