Trials of Ibex Shootint 



Camp life, too, is really delightful amidst the pine forests and 

 grassy slopes of the Celestial Mountains, whilst the knowledge that 

 one has such a great extent of ground to shoot over unfettered by 

 game laws, licences, or guards, is something I leave the reader to 

 imagine. The valleys are all covered with rich grass, while those 

 of Kok Terek and Muntai are vast forests of pines. This part 

 of the Thian Shan is prolific in glaciers, adding considerably to 

 the beauty and charm of the scene, as one views them above the 

 pine tree level gleaming in the sunshine, making a very fine 

 picture. 



My next day after ibex was not much better, for although I 

 came on a herd containing about thirty bucks, one having a really 

 good head, they were in a bad place for a stalk, being out on an 

 open slope which commanded all the ground for at least six hundred 

 yards around. In addition there was a regular army corps of 

 madeens near them, and another herd of ibex lower down, so 

 after various ineffectual attempts to get near enough for a shot 

 with some hope of scoring a hit I gave it up and went back to 

 camp in the late afternoon. 



To those who have shot ibex in the Himalayas and the Hindu 

 Kush the numbers encountered in the Thian Shan must come 

 as a revelation, and no slight embarrassment is caused the sports- 

 man by reason thereof. As an instance of this I would quote 

 some experiences on one of my days when stalking a herd above 

 and a little to my left. Some four hundred and fifty yards 

 straight above me was a number of madeens, and several hundred 

 yards to my right a herd of about 150 ibex, whilst the one I was 

 after had a cordon of madeens round it ever ready to sound 

 their shrill whistle of alarm. Under the circumstances it was only 

 by dint of much crawling, and endeavouring to squeeze myself 

 into the smallest possible size, that I at last got fairly close. The 

 bucks were, however, hidden by some rocks, approach to which 

 was a supreme effort, but the madeens were not to be taken in, and 

 gave warning of the approach of the gunner with the inevitable 

 result that they girded up their loins and vanished. 



273 T 



