no CHINESE TURKESTAN 



horn ; as Durji remarked, they grew out from his 

 head, more as if he had been a sheep than an ibex, 

 and it was with some regret that I abandoned the 

 attempt to obtain them. 



Further on we saw another big buck, a single one 

 this time, and we went a long way down and round 

 to try for him, but he was travelling too fast, and 

 we could not come up with him. In the end I 

 reached camp some time after dark, having had a 

 long and rough walk for nothing. 



Camp was by the bank of the Koksu River, near 

 a large pool of clear, blue water, which should hold 

 fish, though I saw none. Below this the river runs 

 through a cliff-bound gorge, which is passable only 

 when the ice bears. 



In the morning we crossed the river by a deep 

 and bad ford. The bottom was all boulders, among 

 which the ponies stumbled about so that it was 

 rather a wet job, and a cold one too. Just after 

 crossing one of the ponies fell off the path and very 

 nearly went into the river, and some time was 

 wasted getting his load off and hauling him up 

 again. We then went on up a big side-valley, 

 where it was necessary to climb up and along the 

 hillside, so much so, indeed, that we all got off our 

 ponies and walked bits of the way. The path is 

 indeed a rough one when a native of the Tekkes 

 prefers his own two legs to his pony's four ! 



After some eight or ten miles of this we got 



