SIRKANDADEVT. 375 



ever trials and difficulties they may have undergone are soon 

 forgotten in their ardent longing for fresh adventure or sport. 

 Even the dangers to which the mountain-hunter is so often 

 exposed have a sort of alluring fascination about them. I 

 have no doubt many a Himalayan sportsman, when traversing 

 some terribly awkward bit, where a slip might launch him 

 into eternity, will, like myself, have inwardly declared he 

 would never again be enticed into such a position, but only 

 the very next day to find himself perhaps in a worse one. 



Whether I am right or not in these surmises, I, at any 

 rate, found myself ere long preparing for another trip to the 

 wild land beyond the Himalayas. I shall not, however, ask 

 the reader to follow our old trail there, but offer to conduct 

 him in quite a different direction towards Nari-Khorsum, 

 better known as Hundes (pronounced Hoondace), the Chinese- 

 Tibetan territory situated across the high mountain-passes of 

 the provinces of Gurhwal and Kumaon. 



On the 20th of April I set out from Dehra Doon, and as 

 I did not expect the Niti ghat (pass), which I intended to 

 cross into Hundes, would be practicable before the beginning 

 of June, there would be plenty of time for a turn over the 

 Himalayan haunts of the burrell, to which I alluded when 

 describing this wild sheep, known as napoo in Tibet. 



Here I need say little about the middle Himalayan ranges 

 through which I travelled for about a fortnight. On Sirkanda- 

 devi a grand hill rising 10,000 feet on the route between 

 the sanitarium of Mussoorie and Tehree, the chief town of 

 (foreign) Gurhwal, I killed a buck gooral close to the rude 

 little temple built on its summit. Being my first shot on 

 this trip, I regarded its success as a good omen. 



At Tehree, five days out, I paid my respects to the rajah, 

 Pertab Sing, who had been kind enough to send some of his 

 officials to assist me in obtaining supplies, &c., whilst passing 

 through his State. On the evening of my arrival there he 

 sent his gold and silver sticks-in-waiting to usher me into 



