CHAPTER VII. 



SPORT IN THE TEKKES : IBEX 



WE stayed at Kukturuk for some days, which we 

 spent in the pursuit of roe deer (the Siberian roe), 

 but without much success. They inhabit the lower 

 foot-hills, and were not at all hard to find, as the 

 higher growth of herbage, hemlock, etc., was now 

 getting thin, and their large white rump-patch makes 

 roe deer easy to see ; but bucks were very scarce, 

 though there were does in plenty. Phelps got one 

 fair buck, but I never saw one at all with horns 

 worth mentioning, though I used to see fifteen or 

 twenty roe every day. There were a lot of wolves 

 about, and we used to hear them howling in the 

 woods on our way home at night. It seemed to me a 

 little risky to leave the ponies tied up by themselves 

 in the jungle while we were looking for game, but 

 the natives said there was no danger so early in the 

 autumn, the wolves not yet being driven by cold and 

 hunger. I filled in some of my odd time endeavour- 

 ing to fulfil a rash promise made before leaving 

 England to collect rats ; of this small game there 

 was any quantity about, but apparently only three 



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