128 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



be supposed that they are easy to get at. The 

 ground, as I have said before, is much broken up, 

 and the evening stalk involved a hard climb of two 

 or three hours to get on terms with them. 



On the following day I saw a lot of wolves busy 

 hunting some roe deer, but as they all went round 

 the corner I did not see the finish of the chase. 

 Two bucks alone together gave me a very easy 

 stalk, as they were below me, so that the snow 

 was rather an assistance than otherwise, all the 

 slipping being in the right direction. The shot 

 resulted in the death of one buck. I ought to have 

 got both, but missed number two with the second 

 barrel. And I did nearly the same thing the next 

 evening, getting one buck, which rolled down the 

 hill, shedding his already loose horns en route, and 

 hitting another hard. It was too late to follow 

 him down ; but in the morning we did so, and a 

 long chase he gave us before we came up with him 

 in some bushes, when I made a worse than execrable 

 shot, and smashed off both his horns just above the 

 burr, so that though another shot accounted for him, 

 he was not much to look at when got. 



On the way back, while we were crossing an ice- 

 bridge over a stream, it broke, and let Durji and 

 me in up to the waist ; it was pretty chilly, even for 

 a Kalmak, but luckily we were close to camp. 



On the 29th we only saw a few scattered does all 

 day ; so on the 3Oth we moved on into middle 



