2 34 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



rate we felt annoyed if it did not, and tents 

 would spring up like magic; but that delightful 

 adjunct of Himalayan camps, a roaring fire, was 

 conspicuous by its absence in this woodless 

 country. In this way twenty-five or thirty 

 miles would be covered in a day, sometimes 

 more, for the distances in Tibet are so vast 

 that marches have to be lengthened in proportion 

 to reach anywhere at all. Fellow-travellers or 

 habitations there were none. The only inhab- 

 itants of the country are nomad Tibetans, or 

 Changpas as they are called. 



As for supplies, we carried these with us, all 

 except the meat which walked in the shape 

 of sheep, though this became superfluous when 

 we were amongst the antelope ; while for milk 

 we had a little flock of white goats, each of which 

 contributed about a teaspoonful. (What would 

 an English cow say to being marched thirty 

 miles and milked at the end?) 



As regards the sport of antelope -shooting in 

 Tibet, my experience of it came after many years' 

 shooting in the Himalaya, where every stalk is 

 a serious undertaking, a climax only attained 

 perhaps after many days' hard work ; and I must 

 confess that the pursuit of the nimble cheru gave 

 me a lot of pleasure. The fact that with luck 

 one might get two or three shots in a day did not 



