Dec. 1848. TERRACES IN YANGMA VALLEY. 243 



cut out, as it were, from the side of that I was on. 

 On the opposite flank of the valley were several super- 

 imposed terraces, of which the highest appeared to tally 

 with the level I occupied, and the lowest was raised 

 very little above the river; none were continuous for 

 any distance, but the upper one in particular, could 

 be most conspicuously traced up and down the main 

 valley, whilst, on looking across to the eastern valley, a 

 much higher, but less distinctly marked one appeared on it. 

 The road to the pass lay west-north-west up the north bank 

 of the Yangma river, on the great terrace ; for two miles it 

 was nearly level along the gradually narrowing shelf, 

 at times dipping into the steep gulleys formed by lateral 

 torrents from the mountains; and as the terrace disappeared, 

 or melted, as it were, into the rising floor of the valley, the 

 path descended upon the lower and smaller shelf. 



We came suddenly upon a flock of gigantic wild sheep, 

 feeding on scanty tufts of dried sedge and grass; there were 

 twenty-five of these enormous animals, of whose dimensions 

 the term sheep gives no idea : they are very long-legged, 

 stand as high as a calf, and have immense horns, so 

 large that the fox is said to take up his abode in their 

 hollows, when detached and bleaching, on the barren 

 mountains of Tibet. Though very wild, 1 am sure I 

 could easily have killed a couple had I had my gun, but I 

 had found it necessary to reduce my party so uncom- 

 promisingly, that I could not aflbrd a man both for my gun 

 and instruments, and had sent the former back to Dorjiling, 

 with Mr. Hodgson's bird-stuffers, who had broken one of 

 theirs. Travelling without fire-arms sounds strange in 

 India, but in these regions animal life is very rare, game is 

 only procured with much hunting and trouble, and to come 

 within shot of a flock of wild sheep was a contingency I 



