NATURALIST IN INDIA. 287 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



Foxes of the Tibetan Plateau — Leopards — Discomforts of the Region — Return 

 — Wiite Marmot — Old Acquaintances — Degradation going on in the 

 Ladakh Gorges — Scenery and Change in Fauna and Flora — Suru Valley and 

 its enormous Glacier — Glacier action — Scenery in the Northern Ranges 

 of Cashmere — Wurdwun Valley again — Snow-storm — Snow-partridge — 

 Varied and beautiful Scenery — Start from PUgam after Deer — Unsuccess- 

 ful Expedition — Birds — Flora — Rain — Bears, and their Habits — Wretched- 

 ness of the Natives — The Sporting-bag — Return to Serinuggur — Departure 

 for Rawul Pindee. 



The mountain-fox (F! montanus) was not seen beyond the 

 wooded regions of Cashmere, and is evidently replaced hy the 

 silver fox ( V. Jlavescens), which is not, however, partial to the 

 barren regions of Ladakh, but, as has been noticed elsewhere, 

 is also to be met with on the tops of the southern Pinjal. 

 The ounce (i. uncia) is perhaps the most common of the large 

 Felidse. I have seen the skin of a black variety, said to have 

 been procured in Ladakh ; and the natives of Tibet and 

 Chinese Tartary mention a leopard without spots. The tiger 

 does not apparently frequent these regions, and is said to be 

 very seldom seen farther northward than the first ranges of 

 mountains which border the plains of India. I believe, how- 

 ever, that individuals wander into the valley of Cashmere. I 

 recollect at Changos, near Islamabad, one evening during my 

 second visit to the vaUey, we were startled by the barkings of 

 the mountain-foxes, which, my shickaree said, were torment- 

 ing a leopard in a; bare scrubby jungle near our tent. I had 



