Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 



superb view of Khan Tengri, rising in a snow-clad 

 cone to 24,000 feet. So high were the neighbor- 

 ing mountains that it did not appear to tower 

 much above them. At Naryn Kul we found a 

 German baron, with one of Hagenbeck's men, 

 hunting on the Muzart, a river running into the 

 Tekkes just beyond the boundary. Of course, we 

 did not wish to conflict with them, so after a con- 

 sultation with our hunters, we decided to go to the 

 headwaters of the Kok-Su, a large river running 

 into the Tekkes from the south, as this was the 

 only other place where we would find Ovis poll. 

 We got away at noon the next day, and soon 

 crossed the boundary, here unmarked, into China 

 or Katai, as it is called, from which no doubt 

 Marco Polo got the name Cathay. The Tekkes 

 valley, where we entered it, is about forty miles 

 wide and covered knee-deep with rich grass, while 

 on either side rise the snow-covered mountains 

 upon whose higher slopes grow forests of spruce. 

 While I have never been in Kashmir, I have been 

 told by men who have seen both, that the valley of 

 the Tekkes far surpasses it, not only in grandeur, 

 but in beauty, and I cannot imagine a more beau- 

 tiful sight than this valley with the darker green 

 of the forests against the vivid green of the lower 

 slopes, which look as if cared for by a giant: 



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