322 SIGNING A CONTRACT. 



regards sight and scent, no animal has a keener perception 

 of danger from any suspicious sign or movement on the 

 part of other living beings w^ithin range of his vision, 

 however far distant from him they may be. 



Whilst camped here the messengers from Dapa again 

 turned up, bringing with them a present from the Jong- 

 pen of some yaks' tails, and an answer to the effect that 

 twenty-one days was the utmost time he could possibly 

 allow me, owing, he said, to pressure put on him in such 

 matters from Lhasa. So the contract was signed, sealed, 

 and delivered, and I was of course in honour bound to 

 abide by it. This limited period precluded any chance I 

 might have had of getting a shot at the wild yaks (here 

 called " bunchowr "), which, though very numerous on 

 the other (north) side of the Sutlej, are only sometimes 

 to be met with on this side, and generally so far eastward 

 from liere that I should not have time to reach their 

 haunts."^ I might have adopted the arbitrary plan of re- 

 fusing to sign any agreement, but the passive resistance 

 to all my further proceedings in the country wliicli 

 might probably have been the only consequence of my 

 doing so, would have been quite as detrimental to my 

 chances of sport there as a more active and forcible one. 

 I therefore determined to make the best use of the time 

 allowed. 



Next morning the cattle were packed and sent oft' to a 

 spot where there was feeding for them a few miles from 

 here, in the direction of the Sutlej, whilst Puddoo and I 

 made a circuit over the table-land and through the ravines 

 more eastward. We made out a flock of Oves miles away, 

 up towards the Himalayan slopes ; but as, even with the 

 aid of the spy-glass, we were doubtful whether they were 

 ewes or young males with small horns, and they were 



1 Tibetan antelopes — here called "tso" — and "goa," Tibetan gazelles, arc 

 also to be found in Hundes, but only, I believe, well northward of the 

 Sutlej, or farther eastward beyond the Mansorawar lake. 



