434 THE LAL DAK A. 



camel, too, is found on some of the wide plateaux beyond the 

 Kuen Lun range, farther north though, even could one reach 

 its haunts, it is not the kind of animal a sportsman would 

 care to pull trigger on. 



This was an utterly blank day. Not a living thing, either 

 biped or quadruped, was to be seen. As we toiled slowly and 

 wearily over those boundless shingly slopes and high table- 

 lands, breathless from their rarefied air, and buffeted by the 

 ever-blowing blast, how often did I ask myself whether the 

 game was really worth all the time and trouble entailed by its 

 pursuit, until, late in the evening, we got back to camp, tired 

 out and dejected. Even the stolid but usually good-tempered 

 Puddoo showed evident symptoms of ill-humour at our fruit- 

 less work. 



Some distance to the eastward of Dongpu lies a low range 

 of rounded hills, known as the Lai Daka (red hills), so called 

 from the brick-red colour pervading them. These hills are 

 generally considered to be a favourite resort of Oves Ammon. 

 The range is pretty extensive, but there is only one spot there 

 nearer than the Shipchillum stream, at its eastern extremity, 

 where water is to be found. Thither we now decided to pro- 

 ceed. Several hares, and some coveys of the Hodgsonian par- 

 tridge, were put up on the way. As we neared our camping- 

 place, on turning a corner in a winding ravine we came sud- 

 denly on four ewe Oves, one of which I shot to provide meat. 

 The little stream that ran past the tents was full of diminutive 

 dark-coloured fish, which were easily caught by dragging the 

 water with a sheet, and proved excellent for eating. Hares were 

 numerous in this vicinity, though, strange to say, very wild, 

 but I did not care to disturb the ground by shooting at them. 

 The first morning we tried the western part of the range, 

 but saw no fresh sign of large rams. Nothing could we find 

 there except three ewes probably the same lot I had shot 

 one out of the day before : we therefore proceeded more east- 

 ward. About noon we made out four big-horned fellows 



