364 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



beasts ; they are in truth an evil race. There are numbers of wild 

 beasts among others wild sheep of great size, whose horns are a 

 good six palms in length. From these horns shepherds make great 

 bowls to eat from, and they use the horns also to make folds for 

 their cattle at night. 



So Marco Polo wrote of the Pamir six hundred years ago, 

 and six centuries earlier still some Chinese pilgrims, in de- 

 scribing it, said that 'it was midway between heaven and 

 earth : the snowdrifts never cease winter or summer : the 

 whole tract is but a dreary waste without a trace of human 

 kind.' 



These descriptions are nearly as true to-day as they were 

 when they were first written, and this Pamir is the home of 

 the grandest of all the sheep tribe, the great Ovis Poll. 



Until very recently the Pamir was considered one of the 

 most inaccessible places in Asia ; but the Transcaspian Railway, 

 opened in May, 1888, from the Caspian to Samarkand, has com- 

 pletely altered this state of affairs, though the Russian Govern- 

 ment looks with disfavour on English travellers wishing to use 

 the line so cheaply and expeditiously constructed for purely 

 military and strategical purposes. 



Had it not been for the untiring efforts of Sir Robert 

 Morier, our Ambassador at St. Petersburg, continued for 

 several months, I should never have allayed the natural 

 suspicions of the Russian officials in the Asiatic and War 

 Department, and obtained the necessary permission to travel 

 by that route. I entirely owe the success of our expedition to 

 his efforts, and I can never sufficiently thank him for the 

 trouble taken. 



But had I known as much about Russian Central Asia 

 before as I do now, I should not have waited for the railway, 

 but have crossed the steppes to Khokand, and thence south 

 to the Pamir, years ago. There are three routes by which it is 

 possible to reach the Pamir : the first from Ladak over the 

 Kara Korum to Shahdula, and then west, either from Yarkand 

 or from a point before you reach that city. For this route a 



