A Bio- Stacr. 



which they drop to earth and lie another thousand years till 

 they rot ! 



At break of dawn we were up and away, tramping through 

 the silent forests, a silence broken only now and again by the 

 chirp of some bird or the falling of pine cones. In places the 

 ground was carpeted with a rich moss, amongst which the wapiti 

 loves to paw and scratch. 



Towards 8 o'clock we came out on to an open ridge, and it 

 was whilst sitting there I espied a stag going along the sky 

 line on the far side of the valley. We were high up in a 

 side nullah which lower down joined another, also one of the 

 branches of the Muntai. Our side was thick forest with open 

 grass patches here and there, the ground on the opposite 

 side being of a similar nature. The stag was just above pine tree 

 level, but presently turned down into the forest, on which Nurah 

 put up his blowpipe and produced a first rate call, to which the 

 stag responded Soon after this another tock up the call, but 

 he was a long way off and must have been quite a small one, 

 judging from his tone. The open ridge where we were concealed 

 lay high up the valley side, so that, the stag having travelled 

 down a good way on the opposite side, we decided to descend also 

 with a view to getting to closer quarters. We therefore went 

 down several hundred feet through the forest. Our side of the 

 valley, as I have mentioned, consisted of grassy stretches and 

 irregular clumps of fir and pine ; the other was very heavily 

 timbered, with the exception of a narrow open patch close to 

 where we had heard the stag call on our way down. This one 

 from his deep-toned voice we judged to be big, but he presently 

 ceasing to call we lost touch wdth him. 



As the forest is very dense and the ground much broken it will be- 

 readily understood that locating a stag under the circumstances is 

 no easy matter, the more especially as they are constantly on the' 

 move, rendering it a task of great difficulty to maintain touch with 

 them. Soon after sighting this stag I despatched Numgoon back to 

 the bivouac with orders to bring the kit over into the valley where 



261 



