Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



and catching the grass with both hands, I am 

 ahout to hoist myself on to the slope when the 

 thar lurches forward and then comes rolling 

 slowly down towards us. Would he avenge his 

 death by sweeping us all with him? We lay as 

 close as we could against the drop, and presently 

 flop ! over he comes, well clear ; seems to rest 

 there a moment, then, with a slide of shale, he is 

 over again, and, with ever-increasing impetus, in 

 another moment shoots over the precipice ; one 

 or two crashes from further and further below, the 

 noise of a small avalanche of stones following his 

 course, and all is still, and I breathe more freely. 



Eight down in the torrent we found him in a 

 fearfully mangled condition, but with head and 

 horns very fairly intact. 



Here and there in these desolate regions we 

 came across large sheltered basins covered with 

 very green, short grass, and gay with innumerable 

 familiar wild flowers primroses, cowslips, and 

 gentians. These basins were usually tenanted 

 by large flocks of sheep, guarded by wild-looking 

 men of a Mongolian type of features, with layers 

 of thick clothes tied on to them with coarse ropes. 

 On sighting one of these flocks, my men would 

 sit down afar off and shout; no nearer would 

 they go till the shepherds had secured the Tibetan 

 dogs that guard the sheep. I had the opportunity 

 to study one or two grand specimens of this breed 



62 



