362 INTENSE COLD. 



general light-grey colour, with a whitish head and breast. 1 

 They were at first unwilling to rise, but made such good use 

 of their legs that I had to put my best foot foremost for some 

 distance to overtake them before I could get a shot. At such 

 a height this exertion, slight as it was, so completely pumped 

 the breath out of me that I was only just able to loose off both 

 barrels into the " brown " of the covey as it rose. I had not 

 another yard left in me to secure the runners ; but my Tartar 

 attendants, who had wisely followed more leisurely, gathered 

 the old hen and three well-grown chicks. The old one proved 

 rather dry and tough, even after many days' keeping ; but the 

 chicks were as tender and well-flavoured birds as I ever tasted. 

 It was now time to return to Karzok, as I had promised to 

 meet the Major there on a certain date. The cold, too, at the 

 great heights I had camped during the last few days, had be- 

 come unpleasantly intense, owing to frequent snowstorms and 

 to the sun having been obscured by clouds. There was, how- 

 ever, no lack of sunshine on the day I started for Karzok by 

 a short cut across the mountains, where the ground was com- 

 pletely covered with new-fallen snow, off which the glare was 

 almost intolerable. For several miles our way led gently 

 upward through a narrow glen, which wound along between 

 rolling rounded hills. The crisp snow, that at first merely 

 crunched under our feet, became deeper and more laborious to 

 trudge through as we gradually ascended. Not a vestige of 

 any living thing was visible in this white solitude, save here 

 and there a tailless kind of rat, 2 that, scared at our approach, 



1 This bird, although generally termed a pheasant, is really a partridge, 

 sometimes called the " gigantic chuckor." There are two kinds, that found 

 on the southern slopes of the Himalayas being a good deal smaller than the 

 Tibetan variety. They are found only at very high elevations, far above the 

 limit of forest. 



2 Colonel E. Smyth, an excellent authority on Himalayan fauna, considers 

 this little animal, which is about the size of an ordinary rat, and of a dirty 

 white or light fawn colour, to be a kind of rabbit. He says they are inquisi- 

 tive little creatures, and by no means addicted to shyness, as the following 

 experience of his concerning them will show : 



