374 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



^1 



Its con- w 



Green or dry it makes a blazing fire, and though it wants con- 

 stant attention and soon burns out, where there is no dry dung 

 it is a perfect god-send. 



We had made up our minds not to return by Turkestan if 

 we could get across the Hindu Kush, and down into India ; 

 but as our chance of getting through w^as very uncertain, we 

 were obliged to secure our retreat by establishing depots along 

 the return route, of barley, flour, firewood, &:c., ail of which 

 entailed extra transport. 



We found our tent, though it was lined and had a double 

 fly, so cold and so troublesome to keep upright during the 

 furious gales which even in summer sweep over the Pamir, that 

 on our second expedition we took with us a couple of Kirghiz 

 yourts in addition to this tent, and although the yourts are not 

 fastened to the ground in any way, yet, owing to their being 

 dome-shaped, they never showed the slightest tendency to blow 

 over. Once inside our yourt, a stormy evening had no fears for 

 us, nor had we ever to rush out in scanty garments on a bitter 

 night to refasten some yielding tent-peg. 



On the Abchur Pamir there were immense quantities of 

 Poli horns, most of them of very large size, one head which I 

 measured being 69 ins., though even this was beaten by one 

 which was shown to me at Simla by Sir Frederick Roberts, 

 who kindly allowed me to photograph it. The head was given 

 to Sir Frederick Roberts by the Maharajah of Kashmir, and is 

 as far as I know the biggest head on record — length, 75 ins.; 

 tip to tip, 54^ ins. ; circumference round the base, 16 ins. 



Let me recall one day out of my 1890 expedition, as another 

 sample of Poli shooting I have done. We had camped at the 

 end of June by Victoria Lake, which was still three parts frozen, 

 and after a short and fruitless hunt had recrossed to the Alichur 

 Pamir. The weather was changeable and the wind shifty, but 

 our sport had been fair. One stormy evening I spied three 

 rams a long way off. Before we reached them, a flurry of snow 

 hid them from us, and when the snow cleared we could not see 

 them. We decided that they must have gone over the hill for 



