SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS 567 



We had hopes of this wild boar proving to be unde- 

 scribed, since no specimen has ever found its way to the 

 South Kensington Museum, although several have been 

 shot by sportsmen in the Tian Shan. On consulting 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas on the subject, however, I learnt 

 that it had been described by Blandford from two speci- 

 mens procured during the Second Yarkand Mission. He 

 named it as a variety of the European wild boar, calling 

 it Sus scrofa nigripes, on account of its black legs 

 and feet. 



While in this camp we received a visit from a Russian 

 Cossack of the frontier guard, accompanied by six 

 rascally-looking Kasaks, all armed with " Berdan " 

 rifles and belts of cartridges. There is little doubt that 

 he had received orders from his superiors, who were sure 

 to have heard about us, to look us up, and see what we 

 were doing so close to the frontier. 



Our Kalmuks told us afterwards that, if thev had been 

 hy themselves, they would have been robbed, and prob- 

 ably severely beaten. There is no doubt that these 

 frontier police do nothing to check the border raiding, 

 and in many cases are hand in glove with the Kasaks. 

 While refreshing our unbidden guests with tea, we did 

 our best to pump them as to the sporting possibilities of 

 the northern slopes of the Ala-tau. The Russian in- 

 formed us that big ibex and rams, besides large numbers 

 of wapiti and bear, could all be obtained round his 

 hut, only a day's march over the divide, and extended 

 to us a cordial invitation, dwelling, as an extra induce- 

 ment, upon the excellent "Fransuski khleba" (French 

 bread) which his wife would bake for us. We thanked 

 him profusely, though we had not the slightest intention 

 of risking arrest by moving a yard over the frontier. 



