CHAPTER XV 



A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY 



WE remained for a week at Choni, making arrange- 

 ments for hunting. The Border Thibetans are all 

 keen sportsmen, and we had no difficulty with 

 regard to guides. The mist was low on the hills 

 when we woke the morning after our arrival, a 

 sure sign of fine weather. It cleared about 9 a.m., 

 and we enjoyed a beautiful day. Just beyond the 

 southern wall of the little town flows the Tao 

 River. It divides two entirely different types of 

 country. In place of the rolling mud hills, to 

 which w r e had become so accustomed, terraced and 

 cultivated, with scarcely a tree to be seen, rise slope 

 after slope of grass-covered mountains. From any 

 of the rolling summits above Choni, pastured by 

 yak, one saw on looking to the south, ridge after 

 ridge, green and well wooded. The T'e-pu from 

 the stone battlements of their confining mountains 

 must look on grass - covered slopes, gradually 

 diminishing in height, topped by a thin dark line 

 of conifers. For the trees grow all on the northern 

 slopes, and where the fierce rays of the sun directly 

 beat, no tree will live. The hard dividing line of 

 firs running along the summit of each ridge gives 

 the landscape a quaint air of artificiality. Wild 

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