276 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



wasting time. We marched up a small tributary of 

 the aforenamed river, and about 2 p.m. pitched our 

 camp. We now had in prospect for the following 

 day both the same ground which I had visited on 

 the previous day, as well as a new range of hills 

 running northwards of us on the other side of the 

 Tarkhaty Valley. These were supposed to be 

 haunted by Ibex; Taba intimated that no sheep 

 ever frequented them. It began raining in the 

 afternoon, and so continued the whole of the follow- 

 ing day. Consequently we resorted to fishing, but 

 Grayling rose listlessly in the Tarkhaty River, and 

 we caught but few fish. Towards evening the 

 weather cleared up, and it froze hard during the 

 night. That day I visited several of the Kirghiz 

 yourts, and found them by far cleaner than those I 

 had come across in the Kalmuk country. Large 

 herds of horses and cattle (some thousands together) 

 were grazing round the encampment, which showed 

 how much richer the Kirghiz are than the wretched 

 Kalmuks. 



On the following morning I started, at 4 a.m., 

 towards the hills on the left side of the small stream 

 on which we were encamped, and presently reached 

 a high tableland, from which I could plainly dis- 

 tinguish the Kosh-Agatch Plain in the distance. 



