WAPITI AND IBEX 109 



chief Kalmak accompanied me part of the way to 

 see all safe over the worst part of it. Certainly, 

 the badness of the road had not been at all exagger- 

 ated ; it ran high up along the hillside, and was 

 narrow and precipitous. In two or three places 

 there was not room for a loaded pony to pass, so 

 everything had to be taken off; but the good old 

 chief had sent a lot of men to assist, so this did not 

 take long. After crossing a spur we scrambled and 

 slid down a steep and stony zigzag track into afeide- 

 valley, after which things were a bit better. Up 

 this valley we turned, threading our way through a 

 large pine forest ; and after a march of nine hours 

 in all, camped just above the last pine trees, three or 

 four miles from the top. It was a cold spot ; some 

 milk which we had brought up froze solid during 

 dinner. I saw some old shed horns here, and Durji 

 told me that once it was a great place for stags, but 

 that none came there now. 



Next day we turned out of this side-valley into 

 another over a pass of about 1 1 ,000 feet, the north 

 side of which was already covered with snow, and 

 thence descended again by a very steep path to 

 Big Koksu, another nine hours' march for the 

 ponies. On the way down we saw a large herd of 

 ibex, but they were in a hopeless place, so, after 

 watching them for a time, we went on. One of the 

 bucks was very big, certainly well the far side of 

 50 inches, and had a most remarkable ^spread of 



