SIGNING A CONTRACT. 429 



Here we decided to remain for a day or two, to hunt in 

 the vicinity. We found one flock of five splendid old rams, 

 and made several attempts to get at them ; but the ground 

 they were on was so flat and bare, and the beasts were so 

 wary, that it was impossible to get within measurable dis- 

 tance of them : we might just as well have tried to stalk the 

 moon. The innumerable kiangs too, here grazing about in 

 every direction, were a great nuisance, their startled move- 

 ments being always calculated to put the Oves on the alert. 

 For even when you may think you are quite safe from detec- 

 tion by an Oms Amman as regards sight and scent, no animal 

 has a keener perception of danger from any suspicious sign 

 or movement on the part of other living beings within 

 range of his vision, however far distant from him they 

 may be. 



Whilst camped here the messengers from Dapa again 

 turned up, bringing with them a present from the Jongpen 

 of some yaks' tails, and an answer to the effect that twenty- 

 one days was the utmost time he could possibly allow me, 

 owing, he said, to pressure put on him in such matters from 

 Lhasa. So the contract was signed, sealed, and delivered, 

 and I was of course in honour bound to abide by it. This 

 limited period precluded any chance I might have had of 

 getting a shot at the wild yaks (here called " bunchowr "), 

 which, though very numerous on the other (north) side of 

 the Sutlej, are only sometimes to be met with on this side, 

 and generally so far eastward from here that I should not 

 have time to reach their haunts. 1 I might have adopted 

 the arbitrary plan of refusing to sign any agreement, but the 

 passive resistance to all my further proceedings in the country 

 which might probably have been the only consequence of my 

 doing so, would have been quite as detrimental to my chances 



1 Tibetan antelopes here called "tso" and "goa," Tibetan gazelles, are 

 also to be found in Hundes, but only, I believe, well northward of the Sutlej, 

 or farther eastward beyond the Mansorawar lake. 



