Across the Roof of the World. 



curve. One of the upper tines had been broken off, but in such 

 a way as not to be noticeable. The two trophies of Asiatic wapiti 

 I had now secured were big heads, measuring as they did 48 

 inches and 49 inches respectively, constituting fine specimens 

 of this rare stag. 



Leaving Numgoon and Nurah to bring back the horns and 

 skin I started up through the forest on the way back to 

 camp. It was a long and tiring tramp, but little I worried about 

 that, and after a short halt and something to eat at the bivouac, 

 rode back to the main camp where the others arrived with the 

 trophy in the evening, being greeted with smiles of satisfaction 

 by Giyani, who put on an enormous blaze in honour of the event 

 which would have done credit to a Jubilee bonfire. 



The next morning we held a parade of all the trophies and 

 a pleasing lot they looked, affording me a certain amount of 

 pardonable inward satisfaction at the sight of the reward for all 

 I had undergone. 



On October 3rd I went over into Muntai again and bivouacked 

 the night there, but saw no wapiti. On the way down I badly 

 missed an illik, which we came upon quite suddenly and who 

 obligingly stood and posed for me, but even then I could not 

 hit him. I was shooting with the • 303, which was quite accurate, 

 so could not account for the miss beyond bad shooting. 



My bivouac that night was in a side ravine, the eastern 

 slopes being a mass of fallen timber mostly brought about by 

 forest fires which must have occurred many years before. These 

 fires cause great damage and whole tracts of country are devas- 

 tated by them, the only redeeming feature being that the 

 grass is afterwards more sweet and succulent. This is the 

 principal cause of them in the Himalayas, where the hill people 

 set light to the forests in order to improve the grazing. This 

 occasionally happens in the district around Lansdcwne, and 

 during the spring the garrison has often to turn out and quell 

 forest fires caused by some villagers who purposely ignite them. 



The ground here was covered with vast pine forests and in 

 264 



