1 66 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



into easier ground. As I examined the rams more 

 closely, they showed far better heads than I had 

 thought at first, and I was busy taping them 

 mentally, when towards 1.30 they lazily got up one 

 after the other, slowly stretching themselves, and, 

 shaking their bodies, started feeding uphill. This 

 was a good omen. They kept advancing steadily, 

 looking up now and again, ever on the alert. At 

 this stage Taba suggested that we should shift our 

 positions, as the sheep were heading to our left. 

 So we crawled back silently out of view, and striking 

 across a slope of loose shingle squatted down some 

 two hundred yards lower, in a small depression, where 

 a grassy plot in front of me presented a capital rest 

 for my rifle. Here we both lay flat on our stomachs 

 and waited. Presently the rams came up within 

 range, and carefully drawing a bead on the largest 

 I let go. The thud so well known to the sportsman's 

 ear answered instantaneously ; the animal staggered 

 for a moment, but picking himself up trotted away. 

 The other two rams, strange to say, abandoning the 

 rest of the herd which pelted away downhill, ran 

 straight up towards us — and here in my excitement 

 1 fired two shots at sixty yards, resulting in two clean 

 misses. There was no time for reloading again, for 

 they soon popped over a ridge and disappeared. I 



