446 AN ACQUAINTANCE TURNS UP. 



lightning. From here we despatched two men with some 

 jooboos to Niti for a fresh stock of supplies, our present one 

 being rather low. Late in the evening I received another 

 note, this time from a sportsman camped in the neighbour- 

 hood, with whom, it turned out, I was acquainted. As I had 

 not talked a word of my native language for more than six 

 weeks, except to my dog Ranger, I was very glad that an 

 opportunity was thus offered of meeting with a brother 

 sportsman, and an acquaintance to boot. For the wanderer 

 in these dreary Tibetan solitudes is apt to get tired of his 

 own society alone, and after a long spell of it, begins to fully 

 realise the fact of his being naturally as gregarious in his 

 habits as the wild animals he hunts there. Your native 

 followers are capital fellows in their way; but, from the 

 difference of their ideas and their mode of life, they cannot be 

 your boon companions. You are in the same relative position 

 to them as a burrell would be among a herd of tahr. No ; 

 Nature never intended that white men and black should 

 amalgamate a whit more than the burrell and the tahr, when 

 she gave them each a skin of a different colour, whatever 

 may be argued to the contrary. I therefore decided to remain 

 here for a day, and asked my compatriot over to breakfast 

 next morning. He had just come over the Niti pass, and 

 had so far found no big rams ; but as he was accompanied 

 by an excellent Bhotia shikaree, and was en route for the 

 Lai Daka, his work was still before him. After hearing 

 from him how the busy world had been wagging during the 

 past two months, and giving him in return all the infor- 

 mation I thought might be useful, of this quiet and remote 

 corner of it, not forgetting to describe the whereabouts of the 

 big wounded ram, I wished him good luck as he continued 

 his way towards the Dukka hills. 



In the evening I took a murderous advantage of a large 

 flock of blue Tibetan pigeons that came and settled to feed 

 near the camp. A raking pot-shot on the ground, followed 



