262 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



a couple of days to make arrangements for packs 

 and riding ponies. I also engaged a Russian settler 

 as general help and interpreter (he talked the Kal- 

 muk tongue). On leaving Ongodai I marched about 

 sixteen miles and camped on the banks of the Katun 

 river, where a small tributary stream joined. Un- 

 like the Katun, which is thick and turbid, coming 

 from the glaciers, it ran clear and looked very like 

 fishing, so I put my rod together and started off to 

 see what it contained. I put on the Alexandra fly, 

 which suits most fish, for I had not the remotest 

 idea what I was going to catch. I had a fish the 

 first cast, and I soon saw that he was a grayling, and 

 a good one at that. I very soon killed as many as I 

 wanted, for they were quite innocent and would take 

 any fly you offered them. From this date, inclusive, 

 I generally could get fish if I wanted them. All the 

 Altai streams that were not glacial contained these 

 fish, sometimes running up to 2 or 3 Ibs. in weight. 

 On the seventh day I reached Kochagatch, which is 

 situated on a plateau or divide between Mongolia and 

 Siberia. To the west were range upon range of fine 

 wooded mountains, some of them snow-capped with 

 glaciers, whilst to the east ranges of low undulating 

 hills with broad open valleys appeared. This I was 

 told was the country where I should find my game. 

 I interviewed a Kalmuck chief whom I found camped 

 at Kochagatch, a small frontier post on this road, 

 which is one of the tea routes from China. He 

 provided me with a couple of hunters, ponies, and 

 drivers ; and after a day's halt I started off for my 



