|
It is said that a terrifying, hairy giant roams across the
remote, desolate ranges of the Himalayas. For years, travelers
and scientists have tried to learn more about it. The creature
is called many names like 'yeti' and 'abominable snowman'; but
the question is -- does it really exist ? The yeti is reputed
to ___1___
by a number of men ranging from inhabitants of ___2___
Buddhist monasteries to British army officers. It was first
described a traveler, William Rickhill, who in 1891 wrote of
eight large footprints that he saw on his journey to Tibet. Then
in 1921, Colonel Howard-Bury, the leader of an Everest
expedition, ___3___
footprints of 'an enormous human'. Howard-Bury's report ___4___,
but many believed that the footprints belonged to a large ape or
bear.
But in 1939, Eric Shipton, a famous mountaineer, discovered
tracks that were certainly not made by any bear; they were too
big. On another expedition, in 1951, Shipton took photographs of
footprints which his porters ___5___
him were the yeti's. Shipton submitted these photographs to the
Natural History Museum. The verdict: footprints of the languar
monkey. Shipton was not ___6___
as there was no track of its long, trailing tail.
Now, every expedition to the Himalaya brought back fresh
clues of the yeti's existence. In 1953, a group of mountaineers
led by Sir John Hunt heard someone whistling outside their tent.
Their porters told them that it was the sound of the yeti. The
yetis were in the ___7___ of
whistling, producing a curiously human sound.
By now, it was felt that there should be a special expedition
to find out more about the yeti. In 1954, a London newspaper put
up the money for a group of zoologists and mountaineers, who ___8___
armed with the finest equipment and notes on everything written
about the yeti.
From the information they gathered, the yeti is a creature
covered with reddish-brown hair, with a pointed head and tail.
It normally walks upright but ___9___
on all fours when scared. For food, it depends on small animals
and plants.
So far, the yeti has managed to avoid direct scientific
observation. Even today, the ___10___
for the yeti continues as it is still a creature yet unknown to
science. |
