MOVE INTO MONGOLIA. 255- 



CHAPTEH XXII. 



SPORT IN MONGOLIA. 



A gazelle shot — Pombo's obtuseness — A long stalk — A flat crawl — An 

 anxious wait — A big ram wounded— Pombo's jubilation — A 57-inch 

 horn secured — A long ride in the dark — Amnion plentiful — A pack 

 of wolves — Cold — A 55-inch ram shot — A right-and-left — Chase after 

 a wounded ram — Stupidity of Kalmuks — The wounded ram brought 

 to bag — Preparations for leaving the country — Horn measurements 

 — Smuggling — Reach the Siberian railway. 



With my move into Mongolia my bad luck soon came 

 to an end. I sent a man off with my Chinese passport, 

 a gorgeous foot or more of decorated parchment, to the 

 nearest frontier guard, a movable institution that lived 

 in a yurt, and having obtained permission to wander 

 where I would, and the services of a Mongol fighting 

 man as a witness of my being under official protection, 

 marched along the foothills on the Mongolian side of 

 the range, halting for two or three days at distances of 

 ten or twelve miles, and shooting over the mountains in 

 the vicinity of my camp. 



Here and there on the lower ground I came across 

 large herds of gazelle, and shot a fine buck one day, 

 while on another occasion I had a desperate hunt after 

 a huge wolf, without, however, succeeding in bringing 

 him to bag. Still, big rams seemed difficult to find, 

 and when found, still more difficult to approach, and I 



