138 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XIT1, 
it to be like inferior beef witha sour taste. The drivers, however, seemed to 
think it most appetising, In spite of the heat during the day we determined 
to make our marches as long as possible, and after two days, on one of which 
we ercessed the Mosikla, a nasty pass of 16,300 feet, we reached the junction 
of the Changchimo and Panlong rivers, We found them in high flood, and 
were forced to make a detour of 14 miles, and even then had great difficulty 
in finding a ford. We were now at 17,000 feet, and the view we got of the 
country before us was far from encouraging. We could see a long series of 
low, undulating sand hills, with no vegetation and scarcely any grass, very 
similar to the Red ‘Sea littoral, with the one redeeming feature of a certain 
amount of water, and a background of snow-capped mountains, Morse, in 
spite of our persuasions, made up his.mind to leave us, with the intention 
of striking north to Yarkand,and then south to the Tagdumbash Pamir, 
As he had no Chinese passports, I strongly advised him not to attempt the 
journey : but without success. I subsequently learned that he got through 
safely by dint of palavering the Chinese officials, and after shooting Ovis 
pols on the Pamir, returned to Kashmir vid Gilgit. Having bidden 
good-bye to Morse and bis caravan we left the river, and crossing two passes 
of about 17,500 feet, on the top of one of which we saw a Hoopoo, we 
travelled down a gocd road to Lumkang, and at Zaloom, 11 miles further 
east, we found a fair amount of grass, and plenty of boortza, or fuel 
composed of wormwocd and Yak droppings. Furthermore Gerry shot 
the first antelope, which had a 22-inch horn, Signs of Yak were plentiful, 
though not very fresh, but stiil sufficently so to raise hopes of soon falling in 
with the heast itself. The weather was fair enough with a little snow and a 
cold pevetrating wind in the evening, 
The following day we marched on to Lungon Koma, which means “ the 
green highest valley,” and certainly itis well christened. The elevation is 
18,000 fect, and though grass was scarce, there were plenty of antelope about, 
at which I got three nice successful stalks, The first one I only wounded, 
but Goodga, my Pamir dog, at once took up the hunt, and after a beautiful 
course of nearly a mile pulled him down in the open, 
Our next march took us over the Thibetan frontier, and for three days we 
kept moving Hast through a desert of a country, at an elevation of about 
18,000 feet. Antelope continued to be fairly plentiful, and we had no 
difficulty in keeping’ ourselves supplied with fresh meat. We thoroughly 
expected to fall in with Champas, or natives, at Tobo Maru, which is always 
a favourite camping ground for them, owing to the presence of good grass 
and plenty of fuel. We were glad, however, to find the place untenanted by 
anything more formidable than antelope, and rats—I wonder what these 
latter feed on !—there are two kinds of hairy fellows very similar to, and 
nearly as big as, a guinea-pig: as far as I could see they thrived and multi- 
plied on sand and stones. 
