94 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



him Durji, and before long took a great fancy to 

 him, as he was very keen, hard-working, and 

 always cheerful. We pretty soon saw a herd at 

 about their usual height on the hill, and started 

 off to stalk them. Owing to the nature of the 

 ground we could never get another look till close 

 to where we had seen them, and when we arrived 

 there, after a rough and stony climb, they had 

 gone. The wind was true, so they must simply 

 have moved of their own accord. The side 

 valley they were in was deep, and if they had 

 left it we must have seen them, so the presump- 

 tion was that they had gone up, and we proceeded 

 to do so too. The ground was very steep and 

 broken, and we went up and up for another good 

 hour, still seeing nothing, till we began to think 

 that they had gone right away to the higher 

 rocks to lie down for the day ; but still we per- 

 severed, and at last, peering cautiously over a ridge 

 into a small but deep hollow, we saw two fine 

 bucks within fifty yards of us ; the first shot put one 

 hors cie combat, and then came another miss-fire ; 

 number two made off, but the ground was so steep 

 that he could only go slowly, and was also accounted 

 for. A good morning's work and a satisfactory 

 sight they were to a sportsman as they lay almost 

 touching each other at the bottom of the hollow ; 

 their horns were 48^ and 46^- inches ; and so down 

 the hill happy. 



