A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



we had to cross the mouth of a wide plain, which 

 comes down from a valley in the mountains to the 

 eastwards. This district rejoices in the name of 

 Puttatuktuk, and is the locality to which every 

 sportsman who is in these parts, and who wants to 

 shoot a goa, is conducted by his shikaris. There 

 is, to my knowledge, one herd of gazelle on this 

 plain, and, also to my knowledge, this herd had 

 been fired upon by at least four separate sportsmen 

 during the season, before my arrival, so that they 

 were becoming knowing in their generation ; how- 

 ever, we hoped for the best. 



I had sent on to Saibra to prospect, and followed 

 ahead of the yaks a little later. As we crossed 

 the plain we saw him on an isolated hillock, that 

 stands conveniently in the middle of it, beckoning 

 to us to come to him. I sent back to stop the 

 yaks, and when we reached him he told us that 

 he had seen a herd of goa, the herd, and that 

 they had lain down in a small depression in the 

 plain, which he pointed out to us. I was resolved 

 to be extra painstaking in the stalking of these 

 animals, as the account I had received of the 

 hunting of them, from a friend who had pursued 

 them in this very spot earlier in the season, was 

 as follows : 



" At last you see a herd of little brown specks, 

 and are told that these are goa. You proceed to 

 crawl on your face for miles across an open plain, 



composed of the sharpest-pointed stones imaginable, 



170 



