MOTES ON A TRIP AFTER THE 0V1S POLE 75 



crawled to the top of a mound with the Kirghiz, and then saw two of 

 the rams some 80 yards off, but could seo nothing of the third one. 

 The Kirghiz said something, which of course I could not understand 

 a word of, and signed to me to take the right hand one, but whether 

 he meant of the two in front of us, or could see the third one still 

 more to the right, I was not sure, but there was no time to be 

 lost, for the one I fancied he must mean me to take was gazing most 

 intently in our direction, as if already suspicious. It was not a nice 

 shot, though the ram was broadside on, for there was a ridge between 

 us which covered the lower part of its body, and I dared not raise 

 myself any higher, while a wretched flower was wobbling about at the 

 very muzzle of my rifle, which bothered me dreadfully, but, hoping 

 for the best, I slowly pressed the trigger, and the ram dropped out of 

 sight at once, so I knew he was mine. I sprang to my feet and then 

 saw him lying stone-dead, and at the same time Bahima set my mind 

 at ease by calling out " You have got the big one, Sahib," so I started 

 off joyfully to inspect my prize, and long before getting up to it could 

 see it was a real good one. It was a light head measuring 63" and 14f 

 in girth, the horns being thin but with a wonderful curl to them, the 

 points just beginning to turn upwards again to form a second one, and 

 I never saw another one like it among the many scores of heads I 

 inspected on the Pamir, though finding several larger ones. 



The best I saw was a magnificent head of 68, the horns very 

 massive, and I should have brought it away, only that the horns 

 were so weather-worn, and cracked by the sun : this ram had been 

 killed apparently about 2 years previously, and by wild dogs, as 

 the Kirghiz said that if any of them had shot it, the head would have 

 been taken away to sell, being such a fine one. Apropos of the great 

 number of skulls one sees everywhere, a sportsman who had shot on 

 the Russian and Chinese Pamirs some 8 years before my visit to the 

 latter, told me, on his arrival in India, that the Poli had been killed 

 off by hundreds by foot-and-mouth or other disease, but after careful 

 enquiries from the Kirghiz I am sure that this was quite an erroneous 

 idea, for one and all assured me they had never known any epidemic 

 among the Poli, or their tame flocks, and accounted for the numerous 

 skulls by saying that they were animals, either that they had shot, or 

 that had been killed by wild dogs in the winter, when the snow is deep 

 and soft. These pests account for great numbers of Poli every year, 

 the Kirghiz told me, and though they shoot every wild dog they get a 



