A CONTRETEMPS. 337 



rock, stones, and rubble, terminating in sharp grey crags, 

 shooting up into the dark-blue firmament, whilst a broad tract 

 of arid undulating hill and dale, scantily clothed with herb- 

 age, consisting of sparsely scattered bunches of boortze grass, 

 sloped away for miles below. 



Here I sat down to recruit exhausted nature by having my 

 breakfast, and, after finishing it, was lazily reclining to pro- 

 mote its digestion, when my eye chanced to light on two 

 moving objects on a bare distant slope. Drawing Changter's 

 attention to them, he at once pronounced them to be " nian." 

 On the spying-glass being brought to bear on them, they 

 proved to be two fine rams ; but they were in such an exposed 

 situation that it would be utterly impossible to approach them 

 unless they shifted their ground. Presently they began to 

 quicken their movements downwards. This was exactly what 

 was wanted, so we at once began a careful movement in order 

 to get above them, and to leeward, if possible. We had gone 

 but a hundred yards, and were descending the side of a shal- 

 low gully, when a brute of a kiang that was grazing farther 

 up in it, and which we had, unfortunately, failed to notice, 

 got wind of us. With his big ugly nose tossed high in the 

 air, he galloped down the gully and away over the ground 

 lying between us and our quarry. The glass was again put 

 into requisition, to observe the effect of this contretemps. At 

 first the rams stood and gazed, until I began to think that, 

 after all, it was not of much consequence ; but my experience 

 of the ever wary and extremely suspicious nature of the Ovis 

 Ammon was at that time very limited. Without much ap- 

 parent concern they retreated slowly up the hill, until they 

 disappeared over its brow. 



How I blessed that kiang! I had a decided aversion to 

 shooting these wild horses, as an utterly unsportsman-like 

 thing to do, but I then felt as if I could have either slain or 

 maimed that particular brute, not only without the slightest 

 compunction, but with the utmost satisfaction. 



Y 



