226 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the mountains display every shade of bizarre 

 colouring, not inappropriate to their fantastic 

 outlines. They nowhere ascend to any great 

 height above the valley ; but here, far more 

 than on the Pamirs, picturesquely called "the 

 Koof of the World," one can imagine oneself 

 on the leads, among the gables and chimney- 

 stacks of the old earth. The nearer slopes 

 exhibit startling hues in ochres and saffrons, 

 browns and reds ; but as they recede in the 

 distance the magic of the air tones them im- 

 perceptibly into the most tender shades of blue 

 and purple. Yet far away, where the glitter 

 of the stream is lost among a strange knot of 

 hills, two scarlet cones rise on the horizon, 

 looking like red halves of a monster pome- 

 granate set on end. Such are the "aromatic 

 plains of Tibet." 



My wife and I had crossed the Pass forming 

 the boundary between Ladak and Tibet the 

 previous day, though we had been travelling 

 for some weeks in the strange country that 

 forms the western end of the great Tibetan 

 plateau. So far we had seen no antelope, the 

 acquisition of a few heads of which was among 

 the objects of our wanderings, though we had 

 come upon their tracks and knew we were at 

 last in antelope land. 



