286 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



headquarters by the nomads, but was not occupied 

 by any one when we got there. 



On the loth we had a short march of about 12 

 miles to a grassy camping- ground with a spring, called 

 Yakgiang, at the mouth of a nala I wanted to try for 

 Oz'is aniiuon. This place is a few miles north of the point 

 where the Indus makes a half turn to the west, shortly 

 after entering Ladak from Tibet. A shallow stream 

 coming down from the Saka La joins it at the bend. 

 The camping ground was a pleasant spot, covered with 

 short grass on a sandy soil, and with patches of big 

 tramsa bushes here and there, in the shelter of which 

 the men made their fires. 



On the I ith I went up the nala, and had a bad day, 

 seeing nothing. The only Ovis amnion ground [i.e. 

 rolling uplands of granite sand and gravel) was next 

 the Saka La valley, and there was very little of it. 

 Beyond I found steep slopes formed of broken slate, 

 burhel ground in fact, such as I had seen at the head of 

 the Chamarta Chu nala, with plenty of burhel " sign " 

 about. So I spent most of the day looking for burhel 

 on these trying hillsides, breakfasting at a spot so 

 steep that it was only with difficulty we could sit 

 down, and came home in the evening all of us pretty 

 well tired out. I had had a pony with me, but hardly 

 got on its back, the ground in most places was so bad. 



The next day I sent my wife with the camp up the 

 valley, about six miles towards the Saka La, to a camping 

 ground called Donglung, while I went over the hills to 

 the east. This also proved a day of useless work, for 

 the Ovis amnion tract was a very narrow belt, with 



