NO MAN'S LAND 157 



came down into a deep valley called Laptel. Here we 

 halted and hunted the neighbourhood. There was 

 plenty of luxuriant grass for our beasts, and we hoped to 

 find Ovis Ammon, as the ground was covered with their 

 tracks and the valley is not occupied by either Bhotias 

 or Hunias ; for the danger of being snowed up in it is great, 

 when flocks and herds would all perish. We saw no ram 

 Ovis Ammon, but large herds of females. We shot one 

 fine old ewe with a lamb, and tried very hard to catch the 

 lamb, which would not leave the place. Smyth was 

 anxious to procure a live specimen to send to the Zoologi- 

 cal Society along with the yaks which he was sending, but 

 for want of a net we found it impossible. The head of 

 the female (which I have got) is a fine one, with graceful 

 thin horns curving backwards. 



The bottom of the valley where we camped is only 

 14,000 feet, and the climate is far less rainy than on the 

 Himalayan side. Vegetables would grow here, and we 

 saw wild leeks and vetches and rhubarb, and had a 

 rhubarb pie, the first vegetable stuff we had eaten for a 

 month. 



Were it not that Laptel is a regular trap, this valley 

 is a fine grazing ground for sheep and cattle. There was 

 a herd here of kiang, which cardered about our camp in 

 a most objectionable way, making the most fearful dis- 

 turbances. We witnessed a battle royal between two 

 stallions, which for ferocity and wicked fury surpassed 

 any fight I have seen. Again and again the pair went 

 at one another like tigers, biting and kicking and mauling, 

 the blood flowing freely, while the fearful yells and roars 

 they kept up were terrifying to hear. This went on for 

 hours. Sometimes they would wrestle, locked together 

 like prize-fighters ; sometimes they would chase one 

 another all round the valley, bounding across chasms 



