132 



MOMAY. Chap. XXII. 



droppings, and occasionally the hoopoe ; waders, cormo- 

 rants, and wild ducks were sometimes seen in the streams, 

 but most of them were migrating south. The yaks are 

 driven out to pasture at sunrise, and home at sunset, till 

 the middle of the month, when they return to Yeumtong. 

 All their droppings are removed from near the tents, and 

 piled in heaps ; as these animals, unlike their masters, will 

 not sleep amid such dirt. These heaps swarm with the 

 mao-o-ots of two large flies, a yellow and black, affording 

 abundant food to red-legged crows, ravens, and swallows. 

 Butterflies are rare; the few are mostly Colias, Hipparcltia, 

 Polyommatus, and Melitcea ; these I have seen feeding at 

 17,000 feet ; when found higher, they have generally been 

 carried up by currents. Of beetles, an Ajj/iodeus, in yak- 

 droppings, and an MapJtrus, a predaceous genus inhabiting 

 swamps, are almost the only ones I saw. The wild quad- 

 rupeds are huge sheep, in flocks of fifty, the Ovis Ammon 

 called "Gnow." I never shot one, not having time to 

 pursue them for they were very seldom seen, and always 

 at great elevations. The larger marmot is common, and 

 I found the horns of the "Tchiru" antelope. Neither 

 the wild horse, fox, hare, nor tailless rat, cross the Donkia 

 pass. White clover, shepherd's purse, dock, plantain, and 

 chick weed, are imported here by yaks ; but the common 

 Prunella of Europe is wild, and so is a groundsel like 

 Senecio Jacobcea, Ranunculus, Sibbaldia, and 200 other 

 plants. The grasses are numerous ; they belong chiefly 

 to Poa, Festuca, Stipa, and other European genera. 



I repeatedly attempted to ascend both Kinchinjhow and 

 Donkia from Momay, and generally reached from 18,000 

 to 19,000 feet, but never much higher.* The observations 



* Au elevation of 20,000, and perhaps 22,000 feet might, I should think, easily 

 be attained by practice, in Tibet, north of Sikkim. 



