Big Game of Mongolia and Tibet 



the interest of science — though to no purpose, 

 as it turned out, for I was obliged to throw 

 away the skin and bones a few days after, 

 because I had no means of transporting them 

 — I made a solemn promise to myself that I 

 would never shoot a kyang again ; and, I am 

 pleased to say, I broke my promise but twice, 

 and then I did so only to give us food, of 

 which we stood in great need. 



Shooting antelope in Tibet is not more ex- 

 citing — or interesting, for that matter — than 

 shooting them elsewhere, and I do not know 

 that anything special can be said about this 

 sport beyond the fact that the number of 

 Hodgson antelope which we met in parts of 

 northern Tibet was sometimes extraordinarily 

 great. These animals suffer greatly, however, 

 from some plague, which frequently sweeps off 

 enormous numbers of them. I have passed 

 over places where the bones of a hundred or 

 more of them might be seen, one near the 

 other; and districts which I had visited in 1889, 

 and where I had found great numbers of them, 

 were absolutely without a sign of one when I 

 was there again in 1892. 



Of bear-hunting I can say but little. On 

 different occasions, in various parts of north- 



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