THE YAK. 261 



he, being cold, had come in; they were, no doubt, 

 following. All our hopes were now at an end. The 

 others came in about seven, looking very woe-begone, 

 Subhan declaring that the bull had been only struck 

 somewhere below the knee, and slightly injured. He 

 had followed him, I can't say how far, and he stopped 

 every now and then to eat grass, and moved away, when 

 gained upon. Whether true or false, it mattered little 

 now. The chase was over, my chance of a yak ended. 

 I felt, of course, much disappointed, and, sitting with my 

 melancholy group round the fire, discussed my plans of 

 going into the Yarkand territory for supplies. Moosa 

 and the Yarkandi were called into council, and the latter 

 was delighted at the idea of shewing us the way, if 

 ordered, describing his land as one flowing with milk and 

 honey, corn and wine ; so we considered the matter settled, 

 and I determined those to go, and the number of horses, 

 as also the formation of our depot. 



2nd September. Sunday. I allowed the sun to shed 

 his first ruddy beams abroad, ere emerging from my 

 retreat, my coverings white and hard with frost. Taking 

 a stroll to look at my nag, I passed some swampy ground, 

 out of which silently sprung a snipe, a true snipe, and, 

 settling again, permitted a close inspection. His colour 

 and markings were duller than those of the English bird 

 like the Indian and his bill somewhat shorter. There 

 were snippets also here, so I could compare them. I also 

 saw a couple of teal ; these, with some hares and chakores, 

 are all the small game seen ; except, by-the-bye, the 

 gigantic chakore which are in numbers on the mountains. 

 One day I saw, I should think, from one spot a dozen 

 coveys, each numbering nine or ten birds, fly over ; they 

 appear as large as a full grown hen. 



3rd September. We returned to standing camp, and 



