428 IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY. 



low arid hills of a brick-red hue. In the dark sapphire-blue 

 firmament, a blazing sun shedding a cheerless dazzling glare 

 on all around us. Not a sound but the wailing of the wind 

 to break the dead depressing silence, save perhaps the hoarse 

 croak of a solitary big raven, or the snorting of a troop of 

 kiang, as the startled animals stand for a few seconds to 

 gaze inquiringly at the intruders on their wild domain, ere 

 they wheel simultaneously about and gallop madly away over 

 the rolling wind-swept slopes of shingle and sun-baked earth, 

 leaving a drifting cloud of dust to mark their track. 



Here, in small flocks, few and far between, roams the pon- 

 derous-horned Ovis, ever watchful and wary, suspecting danger 

 in each gust of the icy blast that comes fitfully sweeping over 

 this bleak howling wilderness. A wolf may occasionally be 

 detected slinking stealthily off. Sometimes a shy hare starts 

 from the cover of a scrubby tussock of the stunted herbage 

 that is sparsely scattered over the stony soil ; or a grey mar- 

 mot may be seen sitting erect on some sandy knoll, disturb- 

 ing nature's silent repose with its shrill chirping whistle ere 

 it vanishes into its burrow hard by. Even the Tartar ham- 

 lets, which very rarely occur in these dreary inhospitable 

 wilds, have a dilapidated, decayed, and forlorn look about 

 them that is quite in keeping with their desolate dream-like 

 surroundings. Such were my general impressions of the 

 country we were now in. 



As we were trudging along some distance ahead of the 

 jooboos, a small flock of ewe Oves Ammon was descried in the 

 distance. Kiangs were feeding here and there among the 

 few bunchy tufts of herbage on the stony plain. We also 

 saw a fine reddish-coloured fox. Our camp was pitched in 

 the best shelter from the wind we could find in a ravine, 

 where some strips of greensward along the banks of a small 

 stream afforded food for the jooboos, but there was no fuel 

 except the thick roots of the " debsing " grass. The boortze 

 of more northern Tibetan regions is here called " debsing." 



