333 UNKNOWN MONGOLIA 



they got up and began to feed. My ram was the third 

 to rise, and, as he stretched himself broad-side on, I 

 let drive with my "318, the answering thud teUing me 

 all I wanted to know. In a second they were pounding 

 downhill, never even stopping for the usual backward 

 look ; another shot as they disappeared only succeeded 

 in knocking up the snow under the belly of the last. 

 Running down, I at once found an enormous blood- 

 spoor, and knew that, with any luck, the big one was 

 mine. The old hunter looked very crestfallen as he 

 came up, thinking that I had made a mess of the whole 

 thing, but, on seeing the blood, his spirits at once revived^ 

 and, by placing his head on one side and closing his 

 eyes, he wished me to understand that we should very 

 soon find the ram lying dead. 



On the arrival of the horses, we mounted and fol- 

 lowed along the clearly marked trail at a good pace. 

 We had covered some four miles of undulating country, 

 and the blood-trail was getting less and less, when 

 suddenly, as we rode too carelessly over the top of the 

 rise, up jumped the ram from among the rocks as if 

 nothing was the matter, giving me no time to dismount 

 and shoot. After going a short way, he slowed down 

 to a walk. I now had another look at him, and could 

 see that I had hit him rather too far back in the ribs ; 

 it shows the extraordinary vitality of these beasts, 

 that, in spite of a terrible wound and enormous loss of 

 blood, he could travel about four miles, and still keep 

 on his legs. 



We now sat and watched him as he made his way 

 down a long slope, across a stream, and up the farther 

 hillside. But here the slope was too much for him, 

 and he soon lay down again. Dark clouds now begaa 



