248 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



At this stage I deemed it advisable to leave Taba 

 behind, lying flat on his stomach, and advanced alone, 

 though still the grassy line in front of me was unbroken 

 by any object overlooking it. I was gazing intently 

 in front of me, when suddenly I perceived a move- 

 ment to my right, and there, within forty yards, stood 

 two or three rams quietly feeding up, and already 

 almost between Taba and myself. This naturally 

 spoiled my chance of picking out the largest, for 

 they might at any moment get a whiff of my wind 

 and be off; in fact, I was now almost in the midst 

 of them. Turning round, therefore, as cautiously 

 as I could, and cocking my rifle, I pointed it in 

 their direction with the intention of choosing my 

 animal as they passed, or, at any rate, of getting 

 my shot at the first alarm. Suddenly one of them 

 lifted his head up, another followed his example, 

 and a third. They had evidently become suspicious, 

 so nothing was to be done but to take my chance. 

 One of them carried a very fair head, and as he 

 was standing broadside -on, I let go at him, and 

 rolled him over ; the others disappeared like light- 

 ning. Jumping up, I fired at a second as the 

 herd streamed downhill, but the result was a clean 

 miss. In the hustle I was unable to pick out 

 another good head, and, firing at random, saw one 



