268 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



they like ? A patch of velvet mysteriously sliding 

 over the mountain-slopes of its own accord, or a 

 gigantic swarm of black insects ? 



An hour later we were looking with the tele- 

 scope up a wide valley that debouched at our feet 

 and sloped gradually upwards to a high pass 

 some six miles away. Below the pass, where 

 the green grass ended, three black dots were 

 faintly discernible through the thin clouds that 

 hung about the upper end of the valley. Since 

 these dots shifted their position they were de- 

 clared by our men to be yak, and since there 

 were three only they were declared to be bulls. 

 It was some way past noon, and the stalk would 

 be a long one ; owing, moreover, to the shape 

 of the ground and the unsteady wind for the 

 yak's chief protection is his extraordinary sense 

 of smell it was evident that the stalk would 

 be full of hazard. The only certainty, if we 

 tried it, was that of being benighted. My wife, 

 however, indignantly rejected the proposal that 

 she should take one man back to camp, so we 

 started. 



By making use of the lateral ravines we got 

 over some four miles of the ground on our ponies, 

 but were then brought to a standstill by finding 

 that the line we had selected to guard our wind 

 was the wrong one for the shot. The valley had 



