74 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV III. 



me to grow bigger and bigger the higher he went, till it looked 

 simply magnificent as he stood on the skyline, and turned round for a 

 final gaze, and one could see the long curl to his horns. I was too 

 sick at heart even to swear, and simply started off home, but Rabima 

 made up for my silence by cursing the Kirghiz the whole way back, 

 and the last sound I was conscious of that night, when curled up in 

 my blankets, was his voice still at him ! For a whole week I hunted 

 for that ram, moving camp to several neighbouring nullahs, but we 

 never set eyes on him again, and the band must have crossed either the 

 Russian or Afghan Frontier, both being quite close. My bad luck 

 continued, for on our at last finding another good one, which we put 

 at just over 60, I made a clean miss after a desperate long stalk of 

 nearly 5 hours on foot, which so tired me, that I do not think I could 

 have hit a hay rick, and it was a long shot of nearly 200 yards. 

 Having now tried all the nullahs to the west, " Where Three Empires 

 Meet " we settled to move to the east, and made for the Peyik, said 

 to be a good place for a big ram, as it touches the Russian frontier, and 

 the best rams are said to be on their ground. Having reached our 

 nullah, we started off up it on July 19th in the dark, and just at the 

 first glimmer of day-light we rode right on to 3 rams, which at once 

 galloped off, and the light was so bad we could not see what their heads 

 were, but Rahima said he thought one was good. We followed slowly 

 and then saw a band of 15, so got the telescope out, when the Kirghiz, 

 a new man, said the best was just too small for me, but that it was 

 very close on 60, and suggested our going on to look for the three 

 rams again. I was very pleased at the way he discarded this ram, for 

 Rahima said he thought it was just up to our lowest limit, but we went 

 on, and then saw our 3 rams some miles ahead, just as they were 

 going into a small nullah running down from the Russian boundary, 

 and though Rahima only just got the telescope on them as they 

 were disappearing, he said that he was sure one was well over 60, so 

 we settled to stay there for the day, on the chance of their coming 

 back in the afternoon, though it seemed rather a forlorn hope, as we 

 had scared them badly. I was sound asleep when Rahima came to me 

 at 3 p.m. with the welcome news that the three rams had appeared, and he 

 said he had had a good look at them and that the best was certainly 

 over 62, and the others just about 60. It was an ideal ground for a stalk, 

 and after an hour's hard going with a certain amount of crawling 

 towards the end, we got up to our game, and taking my trusty '303 I 



