74 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



in them was scarce and the dimensions of the heads insig- 

 nificant. 



Leaving Zaizau, on the frontier of Russian territory, with a 

 pack train of ponies, bullocks, and camels, we travelled by an 

 easy road through the Saiar range, into the desert, with its 

 familiar pests of mosquitoes and horseflies and its never-to-be- 

 forgotten odour of sage-brush and horse-sweat. 



But on the high ground beyond were the great sheep 

 which we had come so far to seek, and in the high range of the 

 Saiar Mountains and two neighbouring ranges we had fair 

 sport, killing not only the beasts we came especially to find, but 

 also 's^^Q\vi\QT\.^ oi Antilope subgutturosa^ and the ibex [Capra 

 sibiricd) which shares the ground with the argali, bears and 

 tigers. 



A passport which the natives could not read, in vermilion 

 and yellow, secured the neutrality of those we met, but a letter 

 of introduction to the Chinese Governor of the district procured 

 us a typical escort of natives, excellent horsemen and good 

 fellows, armed, however, somewhat oddly — to wit, one carry- 

 ing a Russian Berdan rifle without cartridges ; another provided 

 with an old Tower musket cut off half-way down the barrel, 

 consequently without a foresight ; a third with a matchlock ; 

 and a fourth with a horn arrangement on his finger for 

 archery. With this little army at our back we naturally threw 

 fear to the winds, and pressed on into the strongholds of the 

 sheep. 



Like all their race we found the argali keen of scent and 

 quick-sighted to such a degree as to make a successful stalk a 

 feat to be proud of. Here, as elsewhere, we discovered that 

 separate hills seemed to be set apart for the ewes and lambs, 

 while the rams sought a dignified seclusion elsewhere. 



The reddish-grey coat of the argali is an additional point 

 in his favour, since in a country the dominant tone of which is 

 that of a gravel walk it is extremely hard to pick out the beasts 

 with the spy-glass. Moreover the Altai does not resemble 

 the Pamir in its general features. The Pamir being at a much 



