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CHAPTER XVII. 



The following endeavour to recount some hunting experiences 

 in Tibet will by no means represent what may be termed a 

 competition-bag of game, which, in these days of competition 

 in everything, seems, sad to say, often to be thought almost 

 the main object in shooting. Nevertheless, I trust it may 

 afford the reader some idea of what the writer considered real 

 wild sport in a very strange land. 



Once more I would invite the reader to accompany me to 

 that " valley of bliss " — Cashmere. This time, however, we 

 shall merely pass through its quaint old capital, and at once 

 proceed up the beautiful Sind valley, with its coppices of 

 hazel and hawthorn, its tangled thickets of honeysuckle and 

 wild rose, and its picturesque log-built hamlets nestling 

 snugly at the foot of the mountains amidst groves of walnut, 

 apple, and mulberry trees, and grand old chenars. Much as 

 we may wish to linger in such a romantic locality, we must 

 not do so this time, for it is past the middle of May, and 

 we are bound direct for a very different style of country — 

 the remote, desolate wilds of Changchenmo — and a long 

 tramp is before us ere we reach those haunts of the dong 

 (wild yak) and the tsos (Tibetan antelope). 



Twenty days from Cashmere took us to the town of Leh, 

 the capital of Ladak. Its most prominent features are a 

 fortified palace, so called, from the top of which we get a 

 good view of the place and its environs ; and a rather im- 

 posing bazaar, where furs, precious stones, and other com- 



