28o AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



so, leaving Taba, I crawled on over the rolling stones. 

 The wind was blowing steadily downhill, so I was 

 obliged to circumvent them from below, and crept for 

 about half an hour down the bed of a small stream 

 till I reached the bottom of the ravine. They were 

 now out of sight, and huge rocky boulders, one on 

 the top of another, stood like a broken wall in front 

 of me. Amongst these I now began crawling up, 

 and presently found that two or three young bucks 

 were lying amongst them within 200 yards of me 

 facing towards me, but I could see no sign of the 

 larger ones. There was no possibility of an advance 

 without being discovered, so I waited fairly an hour 

 in a most uncomfortable position till I saw them lazily 

 start slumbering. I had to seize the opportunity, and 

 crawled on for over half an hour, hiding now and 

 again behind the highest boulders, till, finally, I 

 reached a corner which afforded me better shelter. 

 On looking back a last time I saw that they had 

 not been disturbed, and now appeared some 300 

 yards above me against the sky-line the tips of 

 longer horns, towards which I made my way with 

 the utmost caution. The wind was still blowing 

 steadily in my face, and though now and then I 

 was still in sight of the two young bucks, I managed 

 somehow to get within 200 yards of the old ones. 



