SPORT ON THE PLATEAUX 327 



Up those which were lying about on the ground ? We 

 could collect a hundred in a day, and an old koshgor 

 running wild over the hills was so hard to get near. 

 At last, after much chatter, a grizzled old veteran pushed 

 his way to the front. He understood what we wanted. 

 Some years before he had been, he said, a caravan-man 

 to two white koshgor-hunters ' like ourselves. He was 

 a marmot-hunter by profession, and had plied his trade 

 for some thirty years. Though he had never bothered 

 much about the " rams," it being much easier to get 

 within shot of females with his old muzzle-loader, yet 

 he knew where they were, and guaranteed to take us 

 to a place where we should see large numbers every day. 

 The nearest way to reach the best place which he knew 

 of was to retrace our steps as far as Belota and strike 

 up west from there. 



While Carruthers and Price spent the day after 

 wild-fowl, I took a man with me and climbed on to the 

 plateau-like top of the Bain-Khairkhan ridge, which 

 protrudes eastwards from the main divide between the 

 Suok and Chagan-gol Rivers, in a solid round-headed 

 block rising 8,000 or 9,000 ft. 



It was delightful on this invigorating autumn day, 

 with the sun shining down from a clear still sky, to 

 move from one ridge to another, spying the ground 

 ahead from each vantage-point, whilst lying comfort- 

 ably on the short, springy turf. Some wild life was 

 almost continually in view. We saw marmots, snow- 

 cock, a wolf, a small herd of ewes and young, and five 

 young rams that day. I decided to try and shoot one 

 of the rams for meat, but it was terribly difficult stalking 

 country, and, in spite of the most snake-like wriggUng, 



1 Probably Prince Demidoff and Mr. St. George Littledale. 



