THE THIBETAN ANTELOPE. 109 



a stay of only one day in S'rinugger, and at once pushed on for Ladak. I was detained 

 at the foot of the Zojji-la, or Baltal Pass, for two days on account of rain and snow. 



On the second of May, I persuaded my coolies to start, but a thaw came on soon after 

 we set out, and we had a fearfully hard time of it in the deep soft snow. We had started 

 at daylight, and continued marching until about eleven o'clock at night in hopes of reaching 

 some stone huts in which we might find shelter. They were, however, completely buried 

 in the snow, so we had to bivouac as we best could, pitching the tents by fastening the 

 ropes to poles driven into the snow. Early next morning, we again got under weigh and 

 arrived at Mataiyun, the first village on the Ladak side of the pass, in the evening : not 

 having tasted food since the previous morning, I was dead beat ; the coolies were much 

 exhausted, and several of them were snow-blind and severely frost-bitten. 



I reached Chung Chenmo on the 28th of May, but was laid up for four days with an 

 attack of fever and ague ; I found that the ravines were still full of snow, and the Antelope 

 were on the higher and more open ground. 



I had come up early on purpose to hunt Yak, so as soon as I had shaken off the fever 

 I went up the Kyobrung valley in search of them. I was unsuccessful, as elsewhere related, 

 but on my return down the valley I shot a fine Antelope after an interesting stalk. 



Not finding many Antelope near Keum, where the snow had not yet sufficiently melted 

 off the grassy flats by the river-side, I crossed a low pass to Gipsung, and here, though there 

 were no recent traces of Yak, I found numbers of Antelope. I knocked over a young buck 

 the first evening, mistaking it for a doe. 



On the second evening I found a herd on some terraced ground, and placing myself in 

 a favorable position, waited for them to feed up to me. A fine buck at length came within 

 one hundred and fifty yards, and when he was broadside on, I fired steadily at him : he fell 

 to the shot, but was up again directly and made after the others. Having reloaded I 

 followed him and fired both barrels within easy distance, but I was so blown with running 

 that only one of my bullets hit him, and it only grazed his foreleg. The first bullet had 

 struck him high up in the hip and passed through the intestines, part of which were hanging 

 out, but in spite of this he seemed to recover strength and went off at a great pace, luckily 

 in the direction of camp. I followed as fast as I could, but was soon left far behind. I sent 

 to camp for my two dogs (a retriever and a spaniel), and contented myself with watching 

 the buck, who soon lay down in the middle of an open plain. On the arrival of the dogs I 

 approached him, on which he got up and went off at a very fair pace. I hallooed on the 

 dogs, who quickly entered into the spirit of the thing and gave chase. Antelope and dogs 

 soon disappeared in a ravine, and on running up to the bank I had the satisfaction of seeing 

 the buck on the ground, and the two dogs barking at him ; strange deerhounds ! but they 

 did their work well. The kill took place not three quarters of a mile from camp. 



During the next few days I hunted in vain for Yak, but saw many Antelope, about 

 which I gave myself little trouble. 



On the last three days of my stay in Chung Chenmo I killed six buck ; there was 

 nothing remarkable about any of the stalks. On the last day I shot two fine buck ; one of 



