288 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



carelessly on, suddenly to my left a fine ram jumped 

 up within fifteen yards, and immediately after the 

 whole herd were rushing downhill. I had to take a 

 standing shot at the running animals, which all got 

 away uninjured. Apparently the noise of rolling 

 stones I had heard had been caused by some other 

 Sheep that had seen us. We went on, Taba and 

 I, up the valley and over the saddle, reaching a stony 

 plateau, out of which rose a steep mountain covered 

 with reddish soil and shingle. Here we found the 

 rams again, and made a long dcHour of about three 

 hours to get to leeward of them, but when we again 

 saw them, after a desperate scramble, they were lying 

 at the very top of the hill in an unstalkable position. 

 It was now getting late, and we had to return to 

 camp on foot, having lost our ponies. My wife had 

 succeeded in approaching within 200 yards of a herd 

 of about thirty rams, out of which she had wounded 

 one, which, however, was not secured. 



On August 13th the temperature had gone down 

 so fast that we decided to lift camp down the Tchagan- 

 Burgaza River, and in the afternoon pitched tents on 

 the Kosh-Agatch Plain, with the intention of de- 

 voting the following day to the pursuit of Antelope. 

 Heavy leaden clouds were rolling in the sky, and in 

 a regular hurricane we left the higher ground and 



