io 4 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



not. They had certainly not gone up, or we must 

 have seen them, and there was only one side-valley 

 where they could be, so we started up it, keeping 

 high up along the ledges of a cliff, and hoping to 

 see them below us. Eventually we did so, and 

 immediately formed ourselves into a committee of 

 ways and means to consider how to get at them. 

 Though my knowledge of Turki is very limited 

 indeed, and Durji's was rather so too, we eked it 

 out with signs, and never had much difficulty in 

 understanding each other. There was no use trying 

 to get round below them ; the wind was hopeless for 

 that, so there remained only a more or less direct 

 descent from where we were. The hillside was here 

 a mass of small precipices ; also, the herd being a 

 large one and much scattered made it difficult to 

 keep out of view. There were three bucks, one a 

 very fine one, lying on a projecting spur of rock, 

 and these were our objective ; but when, with some 

 risk and much trouble, we had got within a long two 

 hundred yards of them we stuck altogether, it being 

 impossible to get further down without being seen 

 indeed, only a chimney had enabled us to get so far. 

 It was not at all a nice shot, as the buck was lying 

 down against a stone ; but there it was, to take it or 

 leave it, so I took it. The buck jumped up, and I 

 had only just time to fire the second barrel at him 

 before he was hidden by an intervening lump of 

 rock. He staggered heavily, and we were sure he 



