366 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



The place was an idyl of desolation ; not a shrub, nor a \ 

 bird, nor a living soul in sight, while the few blades of grass, \ 

 here and there apparent among the debris fallen from the ;; 

 cliffs above, had a half-hearted air, as if they knew that they j 

 were out of place. The mountains on either side were for- | 

 bidding to a degree. Down their rugged sides dashed torrents | 

 from the glaciers above. The head of the valley was blocked 

 by some grand snowpeaks, which reared their proud summits 

 to a height of 20,000 ft. and more. There they stood (and 

 stand) unnamed, unmeasured, and unknown, waiting for some 

 one to conquer their virgin snows. 



It had been no easy task to persuade our Kara Kirghiz J 

 hunters to come to this place at all. They asked why I wanted j] 

 to go ? They said that there was no grass there, that the horses 'J 

 would die of starvation ; and did I think that the 'Gulcha' (the ^\ 

 Kirghiz name for Poli rams) would stay in a place where there ] 

 was nothing to eat ! For generations their fathers had been ' 

 hunters, and did I, a stranger, know better than they ? 



However, I pointed out to them that we had everywhere 

 found skulls of fine old rams from ten to fifteen years old, and 

 yet we had hitherto seen no ram over five years old in the | 

 flesh. How did they account for that ? In reply they said that j 

 no Kirghiz had ever seen one of the big ones alive. ' Then,' 

 said I, ' come with me and I will try to show them to you/ 'j 

 for I felt perfectly certain that the Poli were not different in \ 

 their habits from the Ammon and the Bighorn, and that it 

 was only a question of time before we found the old ranis in 

 some secluded spot, away from the females ; and the event 

 showed that I was right. 



We left camp one morning about 4.30 a.m., and rode up i 

 the main valley for an hour or so. This brought us to the \ 

 mouth of a side valley, up which we turned, keeping to the fi 

 east side of it, so as to be in shadow. The elder Kirghiz, 11 

 Dewanna by name, soon detected something about two miles !i 

 away on some high undulating ground across the valley. ;: 

 Dewanna was using binoculars, and though I tried to use my !; 



