82 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



the night before ; but to-day he neither called nor 

 came out, so there was nothing to be done. I 

 stayed there till dark, and then started disconsolately 

 on the long tramp back to the ponies which we had 

 left far up on the camp side of the valley. On the 

 way a stag came to the edge of the cover and 

 grunted at us. Probably he only heard us moving 

 in the bushes, and thought that we were hinds ; he 

 was quite close at one time, but it was by then far 

 too dark to see anything. 



Then came another day of unavailing toil. I 

 heard a stag call once in the morning, and that was 

 all. Phelps had heard nothing the last two days, 

 and we both were agreed that it was the most heart- 

 breaking form of shikar and the most horrible 

 country to try it in that we had yet come across, 

 which somewhat sweeping condemnation I after- 

 wards had reason to recant, though I think it true 

 enough of this particular place, especially if accom- 

 panied by Kirghiz shikaris. The Kirghiz method 

 of shikar is to go out eight or ten men together, 

 and if they see a beast they try to surround him, 

 with the result that one or other of them usually 

 gets a shot. From what I saw of them they are 

 nearly useless as shikaris. 



By now we were altogether weary of it, and as 

 the rut seemed to be over, we gave up, and went 

 down to Mintaka on October 4th. 



Three of our ponies, out of a lot bringing up 



