Big Game of Mongolia and Tibet 



these big animals when wounded ; but now I 

 am wiser, and I can reassure those who would 

 kill these big beasts; they look more dangerous 

 than they really are, and will hardly ever push 

 their charge home, even when badly wounded. 

 The first time I saw them we were traveling 

 up a rather open valley beside a frozen rivulet, 

 where, upon reaching the top of a little swell, 

 some six or eight hundred yards off, were a 

 couple of hundred yaks coming down toward 

 the stream to try and find a water hole. I 

 made signs to the men behind me to stop, and, 

 jumping from my horse, I crawled along to 

 within about 200 yards of them, when I blazed 

 away at the biggest I could pick out, stand- 

 ing a little nearer to me than the rest of the 

 herd. They paid hardly any attention to the 

 slight report of my rifle ; only the one at 

 which I shot advanced a short distance in 

 the direction of the smoke and then stopped, 

 waving his great bushy tail over his back and 

 holdinor his head erect. I fired aofain, when he 

 and the rest of the herd turned and ran on to 

 the ice, where I opened fire on them once 

 more. They seemed puzzled by the noise, 

 but my bullets did not seem to harm them. 

 Finally one charged and then another, and 



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