452 AN AGED RAM. 



of the bullet that had floored him, until at last we discovered 

 it in his neck, close behind the ears, which accounted for his 

 having dropped so stone-dead. It was a lucky fluke. His 

 horns were very prettily arched and 25 inches long. We 

 were now a long way from camp, and as we proposed striking 

 our tents early on the morrow, it was necessary to have the 

 burrell fetched down that day ; so we merely covered him up 

 with stones as a protection from the wolves and birds, and 

 after planting a stick with a handkerchief attached to attract 

 attention towards the cairn, descended as quickly as possible. 

 On our way down we descried in the distance a large flock 

 of Oves Ammon, ewes and lambs, which we took to be the same 

 we had seen on the previous evening. 



Between this camp and the next, the slopes above the 

 Tazang table-lands were worked over, but nothing better was 

 seen than some ewe Oves Ammon and a flock of young males, 

 which soon showed us the white of their sterns as they went 

 scouring away in the distance. It was here that my friend 

 Colonel E. Smyth many years before shot the largest ram 

 Ovis Ammon of the many he has killed. It was lying on open 

 exposed ground, but to his surprise he managed easily to 

 approach it within 100 yards, and rolled it over with his first 

 shot. He found it to be a ram of the largest size, with im- 

 mense horns, but very old and toothless, and nothing but 

 skin and bone. It was so thin that even the Hoonyas, who 

 will eat kiang, dog, fox, or any animal they can find, would 

 have nothing to say to it. Colonel Smyth said he considered 

 himself very fortunate in having secured such a fine speci- 

 men, as he thought the animal could not possibly have lived 

 through the winter. 



A very troublesome mile or so had to be traversed before 

 reaching our camp, through a deep abrupt-scarped ravine 

 filled with huge detached blocks of rock and masses of hard 

 old snow, over which we had to clamber. Our jooboos had 

 been brought round by a lower and easier route. The Tartar 



