IOS THE THIBETAN ANTELOPE. 



passes, on one of which we encountered a violent storm which caused the death of a pony 

 and a sheep, arrived in the valley on the afternoon of the 28th. 



I already knew the ground, so we ordered the camp to be pitched near a hot spring called 

 Keum, and hurried on in hopes of finding Antelope. We were not disappointed — we had 

 no sooner reached the place from which I expected to see them, than I discovered three 

 Antelope feeding close to the river ; we at once approached them, but the ground was very 

 open, and we could not walk to within four hundred yards of them. Having got so near 

 we lay down, and although the ground was very stony, we crawled and dragged ourselves 

 along until we were within two hundred yards ; but nearer it was impossible to go without 

 beincr seen. We, therefore, lay still for a long time watching the Antelope, in hopes that they 

 would feed towards us ; but this they would not do, and at last began to move away from us. 

 There were two good-sized buck and a small one, so I selected one of the former and fired ; 

 the bullet must have gone high, but the Antelope seeing nothing walked quietly on, giving H. 

 a chance, but he also missed. My second barrel brought down a buck on the snow with a 

 broken back, but H. again missed. The other buck now turned and walked slowly towards 

 us, and as H. had a breech-loader, he had time to reload and shoot him at about a hundred 

 yards, but had to follow and give him another bullet. The camp arrived shortly afterwards, 

 and we had our buck carried to the tents ; they were both fine ones, and we were much 

 pleased at our first stalk proving so successful. 



The next day we rested, and the following one we separated in search of Yak. I went 

 up a valley to the north-west, called Kyobrung, but never saw a Yak. On the way down again 

 I shot two more buck, one of them a very fine one with a remarkably handsome head. It 

 was a nasty cold morning with drifting snow and a bitterly cold wind ; I was up early, and 

 started for some ground where I had seen Antelope the day before. For a long time I could 

 not find any, but at length a solitary buck got up from behind some stones and went slowly 

 up the hill ; he was out of shot, so I ran towards him, and, having gained some distance, lay 

 down behind a stone on which I rested my rifle, and took deliberate aim at his shoulder at 

 about two hundred yards. I heard the bullet strike, but the buck went on untouched by my 

 other two shots. Hastily reloading, I followed the track, but was disappointed at finding no 

 blood ; however, I soon came up with my friend lying down, but he saw me and made off. 

 I saw the tips of his horns stop just over a ridge, so I ran for a shot, and as he rushed down 

 a steep ravine, I bowled him over with a bullet through the spine. While preserving this 

 buck's head, I employed a Tartar to assist me in holding it ; on my opening the skull he took 

 out a handful of the brains and swallowed them ! I was not so well acquainted with Tartars 

 then as I am now, and recollect that I was rather horrified at the time. 



I rejoined H. on the 7th of July, and found that he had shot a fine bull and a cow Yak. 

 I hunted for the herd for some days and frequently allowed Antelope to go away unfired at 

 for fear of disturbing the larger game, but I never had the good fortune to come across 

 them. 



I left Chung Chenmo on the 13th, as I was anxious to try for Markhoor, in Kashmir. 



In 1864, I determined to reach Chung Chenmo as early as possible, and accordingly made 



