564 DZUNGARIA 



horns being very badly broken, it was useless as a trophy. 

 After assisting my companion to skin and cut up one 

 beast, and leaving him to deal with the other, I climbed 

 up to a spur which overlooked a fresh stretch of country. 

 This district was alive with game, a large herd of female 

 ibex and their young, and some small rams being 

 visible to the naked eye. 



As we left the scene of our success, with the heads 

 slung over the Kalmuk's saddle, the vultures began to 

 assemble, for no meat is ever left to rot in a country 

 possessing such keen-eyed scavengers as these. 



This was to prove one of those red-letter days when 

 everything goes right, and big-game hunting seems to 

 be the easiest thing in the world. After such a day 

 one is apt to push into the background and forget the 

 days of fruitless search or unsuccessful endeavour, when, 

 sometimes through faults of one's own, and sometimes 

 owing to sheer bad luck, one returns to camp, night after 

 night, with fatigue accentuated by failure. 



It was still early in the afternoon, when, while riding 

 carelessly down a stony water-course, with thoughts of 

 camp and one of Pereira's savoury stews foremost in my 

 mind, a guttural "Tocta" from my companion banished 

 all such thoughts from me. The old fellow had already 

 dismounted and was pointing over the back of his horse 

 up a side- nullah we were passing at the time. " Tash, 

 gulja, bilmaida " (Rocks or rams, I don't know), was 

 his next remark. Spotting the grey smudges which had 

 caught his eye, soon seventeen rams were focussed 

 in the field of the telescope. They had evidently just 

 risen from their siesta, and were standing aimlessly about 

 while their leader decided in which direction they should 

 start grazing ; when he had made up his mind, he led 



