THE GAME OF THE PLAINS 581 



rather than chance the uncertainties of pioneering new 

 ground. 



As long as " sixty-inch " Ammon can be secured in 

 the Altai, and the district drained by the right affluents 

 of the Tekes can produce such magnificent heads of 

 sheep, wapiti, ibex, and roe as are yearly secured, what 

 need is there to look for a new country ? But the toll 

 of the native hunters, and that of the less destructive, 

 but yearly increasing Europeans, will tell in time, and 

 drive them to seek for fresh fields of sport. To many 

 travellers also, the knowledge that several other sportsmen 

 are hunting within a comparatively small radius, and the 

 feeling that they themselves at any time may be poaching in 

 another's "nullah," does away with that sense of freedom 

 which is half the joy of big-game hunting. The fascina- 

 tion of treading new ground, where there is no likelihood 

 of coming across empty jam- tins and match-boxes, and 

 where the lure of the next skyline is ever calling, is to 

 some an essential adjunct to the actual hunting. 



These sketches of days spent in the chase, and in 

 studying the habits of big game, I submit to the public, 

 in the hope that they may prove of interest to naturalists 

 and sportsmen ; both to the few who contemplate visit- 

 ing the regions mentioned, and to the majority who, 

 though continually hearing it, are compelled to turn a 

 deaf ear to the call of the " red gods." 



There is probably no region in Central Asia where 

 one finds such a decided and sudden change in altitude, 

 and therefore in flora and fauna, as in Dzungaria. From 

 the low, sandy, and jungle-covered plains lying to the 

 north of Manas, which, although they lie at a distance 

 of 1,600 miles from the ocean, are lifted only 700 ft. 

 above it, one can look up to peaks that lift their snow- 



