Hunting at High Altitudes 



So far we had seen no game, but the next morn- 

 ing a little herd of ibex, high up on the mountain, 

 caused the glasses to be used, only to show that 

 they were all females and young. Further on we 

 passed several skulls of sheep, killed in the winter 

 by wolves, and so felt that at last we were reach- 

 ing the game we had come so far to find. Another 

 day brought us to a place called Karagai Tash, 

 meaning Stone Pines, from a range of hills whose 

 sides had been eroded by wind and weather until, 

 in the distance, they looked like pine trees. Here 

 we made a permanent camp, turning in that night 

 with hopes high for the morrow ; but a snowstorm 

 for the next three days kept us in our tents, where 

 most of the time was spent in bed, as we were well 

 above timber line and had for fuel only a few 

 shrubs, helped out with horse and cow dung. 



Khudai Kildi, my hunter, was quite a personage. 

 Belonging to the Kara, or Black Kirghiz, he had 

 a profound contempt for Kazaks and common Kir- 

 ghiz, both of whom he used to order about, often 

 enforcing his commands with a beating from the 

 heavy riding whip he always carried. A fine look- 

 ing, dignified man of fifty, he stood over six feet 

 and must have weighed over two hundred. On his 

 left arm he carried the scars of a fight he had with 

 a bear when still a young man, and one day, while 



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