120 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



skins of two stags he had shot during the calling 

 season, which skins he had hidden under rocks. 



Next day we had another try after ibex, but just 

 when we were getting on terms with them they 

 moved and took up a position all approach to 

 which was barred by the wind. The Kalmaks 

 then proposed trying to drive them, but this, as I 

 expected, turned out a failure. 



I had now had enough of it, and wanted to get 

 back to a less rigorous climate, and again be able 

 to take some of my clothes off at night instead of 

 having to put more on. So next day we returned 

 down the valley to the camp from which I had shot 

 the stag, and another short march took us down to 

 Big Koksu. The drift ice coming down had in places 



O O IT 



jammed and then frozen up solid, so we crossed 

 the river on an ice-bridge, which would have borne a 

 siege train, though the river was not yet frozen -over 

 where the current was swift. The stream in the 

 side-valley we had left was a rapid one, and was 

 frozen along the sides, but not in the middle. It 

 was girth deep, and had to be forded about once in 

 every hundred yards, which was most unpleasant. 

 If the ponies reached the edge of the ice without 

 falling through, they nearly always stumbled in 

 getting off it into the water, so one's feet were 

 always wet, and a nailed shooting-boot is not the 

 warmest of footgear, even when not covered with a 

 thin coating of ice. 



