128 A MOUNTAIN MISCELLANY 



sheep a form of the burhel serow, goral, wapiti, 

 pig, musk deer, roe, bear, leopard, and, I believe, a 

 variety of sika, though we never came across them 

 live amongst these mountains. 



Young-sha, a proverbially lucky hunter, put in 

 an appearance and agreed to come with us. Later 

 on, George engaged another man called Lao- Wei. 

 We went out one afternoon for roe, which Young- 

 sha said could be found on a hill close to the town. 

 We saw a doe and a fawn, but no buck. This man 

 had several times, so the doctor told us, performed 

 a rather remarkable feat considering the clumsiness 

 of his weapon namely, shot a roe, reloaded and 

 killed a second. Thibetan guns are far superior to 

 the old pistol-stocked weapons of the Chinese, 

 which give their owner a severe blow in the eye 

 whenever they are fired. They have a long barrel, 

 the usual stock, and a fuse with which the charge is 

 ignited. Below the barrel is a double prong of 

 hardened wood, sometimes shod with steel or iron. 

 This is hinged on to the weapon, and stuck into the 

 ground before firing. It makes an efficient rest, 

 and the Thibetans make very straight shooting 

 with their weapons up to two hundred yards. For 

 a really good gun the owner will ask as much as 

 sixty or seventy taels (8 or 9). 



We tried for a bear one evening, but it came on 

 to rain so hard that we had to return to Choni 

 without seeing a sign of one. There was a dear 

 little girl in Mr. Christie's house, his cook's 

 daughter, aged eight, who was already engaged 

 to be married, the prospective husband having 

 reached the mature age of five. Her father, some 

 years before, had been smitten with the gambling 



