THE OVIS POLI OF THE PAMIR 



367 



telescope, my fingers were so numbed with cold that it was 

 quite impossible to hold it steady. After some little scrutiny 

 we all decided that the beasts were arkar— i.e. female Poli— and 

 continued on our course for about another mile, when some 

 extremely likely-looking ground made us pause again to take a 

 good look ahead. • By this time some little warmth had come 

 back into my fingers, and I was able to use my Ross's telescope 

 again. After carefully spying over the ground and finding 

 nothing, I turned the glass on to our old friends the arkar. 

 The moment the glass was still, one look was sufficient. Down 

 went the telescope, and I crept forward dragging my pony out 



Our camp 

 of sight, whilst the Kirghiz, divining that I had seen something, 

 !)romptly followed my example. And what a sight that glass 

 :^evealed ! Twenty-six old Poli rams in a band, and the smallest 

 of them larger than anything I had yet seen ! Lucky for us 

 that we had kept under the shadow of the rocks, as but for 

 •hat we had been in full view of the rams for a quarter of an 

 hour, in spite of which they were still quietly feeding, un- 

 conscious of the deadly peril to which they were exposed. 



Men who are not sportsmen can hardly realise what my 

 leelmgs were when I discovered that at last I had in front of 

 me so many splendid specimens of an animal which for years 

 had been the dream of every British sportsman in the East. 



