Across the Roof of the XVorld. 



to be abandoned. Snow fell heavily during the night, but held 

 up by five next morning, which enabled us to get away to the 

 ground where we had heard wapiti calling two days before ; no 

 stags, however, came out nor did we hear any. Of course one 

 wanted Nurah as it is difficult to locate stags in that dense forest, 

 for they only call irregularly when not answered. 



Numgoon considered we might do better by trying the 

 ground north-east on the far side of the Kok Terek ravine, so 

 I decided to bivouac for two days as the difficult terrain did 

 not permit of the permanent camp being established there. 

 We therefore crossed the intervening range and, descending into 

 the ravine beyond, bivouacked imder a clump of towering pines. 

 Giyani was left in charge of the main camp with the Kazak, 

 Rasul accompanying me as cook. 



As I have already said, to hunt wapiti with any success one 

 should be able to imitate the call. This can be done with the 

 aid of a hollow reed stalk about f inch in diameter, but it is 

 difficult to do well. Nurah, of course, was quite good at it, but 

 the efforts I made could scarcely be called musical and did 

 nothing beyond provoking much merriment amongst my cheery 

 retainers. I afterwards had other attempts at it in camp, but 

 produced little better than a few weird sounds calculated to 

 scare anj^ wapiti, though it amused the Kalmuks immensely. 



During the afternoon Nurah arrived at the bivouac, he having 

 come straight on from the main camp which he had reached that 

 day from Shota, after making arrangements for the recovery of 

 a number of his horses stolen by predatory Kazak bands. 



The next morning we were out before dawn, and, fording the 

 stream, ascended the slopes on that side through a vast forest of 

 pines. At intervals Nurah would call with the aid of his blow- 

 pipe, and, no answer being forthcoming, would trudge silently 

 on again. Higher up we emerged on to an open stretch of grass 

 which covered that part of the ridge. To our right a small spur 

 ran out from the main ridge, commanding a view of the forest 

 below and of the higher reaches of the valley, towards tlie pass 



