8o CHINESE TURKESTAN 



up against a fallen tree. My Kirghiz now arrived 

 on the scene of action, and we scrambled over and 

 under the fallen timber as fast as we could. The 

 stag was stone dead when we reached him ; but, 

 nevertheless, the Kirghiz hastily produced his knife, 

 and, making a small cut in the neck, pronounced 

 the animal duly halldl (lawful), according to Mahom- 

 medan law, his conscience being, it seemed, easily 

 satisfied in this respect. The head was nothing 

 very great, only a fair ten-pointer ; but it was a 

 wapiti, and my first. Phelps came back in the after- 

 noon, having followed up and shot a very fine 

 twelve-pointer the evening before, so we were more 

 cheerful, and we chatted over the day's doings by 

 the camp fire till snow began to fall and drove us to 

 our tents. 



Next day Phelps went away again, and I went 

 out rather late, but heard a stag, and went down 

 into a deep and bushy valley after him. He stopped 

 calling, and the Kirghiz went round to try and drive 

 him ; but this was a failure, though the Kirghiz saw 

 the stag, which he said was small, so we had to 

 climb all the way up again for our pains. During 

 the afternoon we heard another stag calling in a 

 very large valley, which, steep though its sides 

 were, was simply one enormous forest of pines. 

 We followed this stag till dark, up and down hill, 

 but he was travelling too fast for us, and we never 

 got near ; but by the tracks there must have been 



