442 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP, xxvi 



postures, we may at once agree that a limited experience must be 

 of little value to the lover of natural history. The book we 

 require as a standard authority must be the result of many years' 

 practical study, and intimate association with the animals described. 

 It is impossible that one man can have had experience sufficient 

 to embrace all portions of the world, and the fault of many writers 

 consists in their attempting too much. If an individual will con- 

 fine his description to that particular branch of sport and natural 

 history which he has carefully mastered, and neglect all hearsay 

 evidence, but relate only that which he has positively accomplished 

 and personally witnessed, his book will be received as a welcome 

 exception to the general rule." 



Upon this principle, I do not intrude upon the province of 

 others who have had experience in countries which I have not 

 visited. I have no practical knowledge of the animals of the 

 Himalayan range, therefore I say nothing concerning them. The 

 admirable work of Colonel Kinloch, Large Game shooting in 

 Thibet, the Himalayahs, and Northern India, embraces the 

 numerous species of sheep, the yak, and the various interesting 

 fauna of those high altitudes. To such works the public can 

 refer with confidence, in the knowledge that the writer describes 

 what he saw, and not what he had gathered from doubtful hearsay. 



