226 AMONG THE IBEX OF TURKESTAN. 



the Kara Su or Black river, the Ak Su or White 

 river, and the Oriyaas, up which I journeyed rifle 

 in hand during the first half of June 1903. I 

 believe there is no spot known to the European 

 sportsman which can lay juster claim to the title 

 of " sportsman's paradise " for the particular game 

 it produces — the ibex, Asiatic wapiti, and Asiatic 

 roe-deer — than the wooded slopes and grassy corries, 

 the steep ravines and rocky precipices, which here 

 abound in what may be described as the mountain 

 pendants of the great central system of the Thian 

 Shan. In the days of long ago, when Kashmir was 

 first exploited by the sportsman, the sport obtained 

 may have come up to that now obtainable in the 

 Thian Shan, but I doubt if the barasingh ever car- 

 ried so massive and heavy a horn as the Asian 

 wapiti, or if there was ever the same number of 

 ibex with heads equal to those which range the 

 mountains in the vicinity of Tekkes. 



This land, like most lands of plenty, is a distant 

 one, and cannot be reached without a considerable 

 expenditure of time and forethought. Mr Church 

 has given an admirable description of the long days 

 of weary marching, even after the stupendous Him- 

 alayan and Karakoram ranges are crossed, which 

 await the traveller journeying hither from India. ■'■ 

 From the west, however, far less difficulty is en- 

 countered. Permission once obtained from the 

 authorities at St Petersburg to carry rifles, the 

 Transcaspian railway lands one at Tashkent in 

 Turkestan, whence a post-road is available to Kulja. 

 Allowing a month for the journey to Kulja, a delay 

 there, varying according to circumstances, while ob- 

 taining transport for the remainder of the journey, 



^ Chinese Turkestan. 



