THE OVIS POLI OF THE PAMIR 369 



quite flat and without any cover. To get at them we must 

 either retrace our steps for about two miles, when we could 

 cross unseen, or go forward about a mile. The Kirghiz were 

 both in favour of going forward, whilst I wished to go back^ 

 and it was very much against my will that I let them have 

 their own way. The rams were on the lee side of the hill and 

 near the top, which is always a most difficult position ; in 

 fact, if the game is withm one hundred or one hundred and 

 fifty yards of the top, and the hill is pyramidical in shape 

 ' which this hill was not), I think ' it passes the wit of man ' to 

 approach them, for from whichever side you try you will find 

 them either with the true wind or the shifting eddy to leeward 

 of you. Try one side or the other, it is a position of nearly 

 absolute safety for the rams. 



By keepmg behind the moraine of an old glacier a shoulder 

 of the hill at length shut our quarry out of view, and we were 

 able to cross the valley. In the middle of this there was a 

 rapid stream across which the younger Kirghiz (having 

 stripped) carried Dewanna, coming back afterwards for me. 

 Unluckily, when nearly over, my carrier slipped and all but 

 came down, wetting me to the knees in a stream cold as only 

 ice water fresh from a glacier can be. After a stiff climb of 

 about an hour, we reached the top of a small ridge from which 

 we expected to view the rams ; but though we ' spied ' every 

 yard carefully, we could see nothing of them. All the while 

 I knew that we were stalking on wrong principles, and when 

 at last, after a most careful climb, we found that we had run 

 into an eddy of wind, and that the sheep had vanished, it 

 caused me no surprise. 



For several hours after this we walked on slowly, spying 

 every yard as we went, for tracking on this stony ground was 

 hopeless. On reaching a spot where the hill broke off sharply, 

 we lay down and examined the ground, which was very much 

 broken up into little valleys filled with great boulders, the lee 

 .'ic of any one of which was a likely place for the rams. 



When the Kirghiz first joined us I told the interpreter to 



