204 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



yang, and saiga, must be mentioned, though they 

 do not properly belong to the list of Tekkes 

 game. The Yarkand stag (Cervus kashmirianus 

 yarkandensis), locally called " boach " ; hind, 

 "maral." 



The two best places I know of for these are 

 Aksak Maral on the Yarkand -Maral bash i road, 

 and Yakka Kudak on the Maralbashi-Aksu one. 

 The calling season is said to begin about the ist 

 of October, and this would be the best time, pro- 

 vided the mosquitoes do not make life in the jungle 

 unbearable, on which point the evidence I collected 

 is somewhat conflicting. As I have said, I tried a 

 winter there once with very poor results, which I 

 believe has been the experience of other sportsmen ; 

 but so far as I know no one has tried it in the 

 calling season, when things might be different. 



Yarkand gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), locally 

 called "jeron," found all over the Maralbashi country, 

 and on the banks of the Khotan River, its habitat 

 being practically the same as that of the Yarkand 

 stag. Though it favours the slightly more open 

 parts of the country, it is by no means easy to get. 



Hwang yang (yellow sheep), so called by the 

 Chinese by Mahommedans " jeron" is, I believe, a 

 near relation of the Yarkand gazelle ; but is reddish 

 in colour, with a white face, while the Yarkand one 



