i 5 o AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



to them. A long climb back now awaited us. It 

 took us about an hour under a tropical sun to cover 

 the distance which had taken us ten minutes downhill. 

 I know nothing more disappointing" than a climb back 

 after an unsuccessful stalk, and I daresay that every 

 sportsman will share the feelings I experienced. 

 Taba gave me, as usual, a bit of his mind in English ; 

 poor little fellow, he was the keenest hunter I ever 

 came across. 



We reached the spot from which we had sighted 

 the two vanished rams, and on halting in order to 

 inspect the other corries I spied a herd of six sheep 

 in the distance, about a mile lower down. "Taba, 

 Kotchka^ said I. " lok" that is, "No," was the 

 answer ; "djeran" as he carefully replaced the telescope 

 on the grass. Now djeran is a term I have often 

 heard in the Caucasus and in Asia. In the former the 

 natives use it to express either Chamois or Antelope ; 

 in the eastern Russian steppes Kalmuks and Kirghiz 

 apply it to the Saiga antelope, the same for Russian 

 Turkestan, where both the Saiga and the Antilope 

 guthwosa are to be found. I therefore concluded 

 that we were in the presence of antelope, but being 

 too far off was unable to identify the animals. Later 

 on, during our return journey, we came across large 

 herds of Antilope guttiirosa on the Kosh-Agatch plain, 



