Across the Roof of the World. 



marksmen take up their position. The poH are then rounded 

 up with the aid of dogs and manoeuvred to make them converge 

 on to the nek through which the majority pass in headlong 

 flight. This is the Kirghiz opportunity for slaughter, an oppor- 

 tunity he takes full advantage of, usually bagging several poli. 

 A good many of the natives possess Russian breech-loading 

 rifles and, what is more, know how to use them. The object 

 of these drives is to procure a supply of skins to make boots 

 and clothes, whilst the meat is smoked and stored for consump- 

 tion during the summer. 



Wild dogs have also ever been a source of trouble, and to 

 their ravages the diminution in the number of poli is doubtless 

 to a large extent due. Lord Dunmore and other authorities on 

 Pamir shikar speak of the havoc wrought by these beasts, and 

 since it has been going on for generations, such a persistent 

 onslaught must, coupled with the depredations of the wolves and 

 the hunting Kirghiz, bring poli in time to the point of extinction 

 and render a journey to the Pamirs for sport futile. 



Twenty miles up the valley from Mintaka I halted awhile 

 at a ^^urt hard by the confluence of the Karachukar and Tager- 

 man Su streams. The occupants were very hospitable and 

 insisted on regaling me with tea and little cakes fried in fat, 

 which I enjoyed, the keen air of the Pamirs giving one an ever- 

 ready appetite. My shikari, Kurban, told me the poh ground 

 was still some way up stream beyond the point where the Kilik 

 nullah joins the main valley. I therefore determined to make 

 the most of the remaining hours of daylight and push on still 

 further to a camp whence I could set forth on the morrow 

 in quest of the coveted game. Leaving the yurt I trekked on 

 for another two hours, camping in a depression of the ground 

 where some shelter wns afforded from the wind — always so 

 disagreeable a feature of the Pamirs. Much snow was still here, 

 the year being well advanced before it entirely disappears from 

 the valley. At sundown a heavy snowstorm set in, and with 

 such silent persistency did it fall that the tents were soon covered 



66 



