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YAK SHOOTING iN THiBET, 139 
In the evening I sawa Lynx stalking a young Antelope, but although 
successful in saving the youngster’s life, I failed to get a shot at its enemy, 
The Yak drivers now wanted to leave us, but by threats and bribes we 
succeeded in keeping them, and after a day’s rest and good grass both ponies 
and Yaks appeared to have taken a new lease of life. The weather became 
simply awful ; gales of wind with hail and sleet, while the glare from 
the white sand made our eyes terribly sore, an additional trouble to our 
poor faces which had cracks in them nearly an eighth of an inch deep, 
On August 13th we fell in with Yak at last. Russool saw two of them in a 
nullah, and after along tiresome stalk we got within 400 yards of them, 
when the wind changed, and away they went. I fired and hit one of them, 
and as there were copious blood tracks, a Ladaki was sent to follow him up, 
He found him a long way off lying down on the top of a ridge, but dark- 
ness came on, and we never got him, It had been snowing and hailing all 
day, and having had to ford two rivers, we were fairly done up by the time 
we reached camp. During the evening two Champas came spying round the 
camp, and as we were afraid that they might have gone off to collect a 
crowd, there was nothing for it but to press on, paying off the hired Yaks, 
which owing to sore feet and saddle galls had become useless, and only a 
source of delay. Our route brought us to a fresh-water lake round which 
Antelope were plentiful, but much as we should have liked to have halted 
we decided that it wis better to push on as far as Mangtza Cho, a salt-water 
lake lying at 17,300 feet. The shores of this lake are a mass of pure salt, 
which the Ladakis dig up and pack for transport onsheep. It is a peculiar 
sight to see large flocks of these little beggars trotting along with their loads 
of 30 lbs, in pack saddles ; their daily march being about 10 miles, The 
water of the lake is quite bitter, the only fresh-water procurable being in 
little streams of snow water flowing intermittently into it. A fact that 
puzzled us greatly was the presence of fish in some of these small streams, 
Gerry and I caught several stone loach in a small stream flowing into a salt 
marsh about 17,500 feet above sea-level. I should like to know how they 
got there, Further than that,on our return journey, in the Probrong, 
a stream that flows into the Pangong lake, which is far too salt for fish to 
live in, our drivers caught a quantity of fish of the carp tribe about 1 Ib, or 
so in weight, The natives told me that the stream is full of fish, but what 
happens to them in the winter, when the stream is often frozen solid, it is 
hard to say. 
We felt disappointed at seeing no more Yak, and for three days kept 
moving east, our only sport being Antelope for the pot. Some of the stalks 
were exciting enough, and onone occasion Gerry fairly established his 
reputation asa Dr, Carver by knocking over a galloping Antelope from the 
saddle betore the whole caravan, Our camps were averaging 17,900 Leet. 
and Imay say that for the whole time during which we were living at 
