248 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN TEE SIBERIAN ALTAI 



produce a sensation which is almost too keen to be 

 pleasant. At 4 a.m. the following morning I was up 

 and dressed, and before 5, when the sun was just 

 casting his first rays over the tops of the mountains 

 above my camp, I started, followed by two Kalmuks 

 — one, reputed a cunning hunter, to accompany me 

 when game was found, the other to hold the ponies, 

 — for we always started on horseback. A Kalmuk 

 would never dream of going anywhere on his own legs 

 when he could make his pony do their work for them, — 

 that, he says, would obviously be foolish, wherein he 

 undoubtedly shows a certain practical common-sense. 

 It must be admitted, however, that here his common- 

 sense stops short : in general a block of wood would 

 be a mass of intelligence in comparison, and there- 

 fore, lest by any possibility I do him any injury in 

 railing at his obtuseness, my hunter shall rejoice in 

 a fictitious name, and Pombo he shall be to the end 

 of the chapter. 



This, my first day after the great wild sheep, was 

 not encouraging : it was worse, it was gloomily de- 

 pressing. I started up the Bain Chagan, Demidoff's 

 " Happy Valley," and searched it from top to bottom, 

 and when I reached the watershed went on over the 

 shaley slopes which overlook Mongolia ; but there was 

 nothing in the least degree felicitous about it on this 

 occasion, for not a sign of a beast did I see, and passing 

 on along the summit of the ridge I returned by the 

 Chagan Burgaza, reaching camp once more, tired and 

 dispirited, at 7 p.m., after a futile fourteen hours in the 

 saddle. 



Pombo looked wise when I consulted him as to what 

 was to be done on the morrow, said we would start up 

 the Bain Chagan again and take a turn over the hills 

 to the east instead of the west as we had done to-day. 



