594 DZUNGARIA 



Tian Shan and Ala-tau. This I attribute to the inferi- 

 ority of the feed in the KarUk Tagh. Owing to the 

 dry influence of the neighbouring deserts, the growth, 

 for the most part, is of a decidedly steppe-like nature, 

 there being but little of that boggy grass-land which is 

 met with in the plateaux farther west. During the 

 early part of the summer the sheep are independent of 

 water, finding ample moisture in the wild onions that 

 grow nearly everywhere. Later on, when these get 

 dried up, they visit the springs and streamlets. It is 

 then that the native hunter lies in wait for them, 

 skilfully concealed within shot of the water ; but it is 

 very rarely that this method of hunting wild-sheep is 

 adopted by natives of Central Asia, water, as a rule, 

 being abundant over all the country inhabited by the 

 great wild-sheep. 



In these two days I was able to form a very favourable 

 opinion of Nears as a hunter. Besides knowing all 

 about the business, he was silent, keen, and persevering, 

 in fact, as nearly ideal a shikari, as it would be possible 

 to find anywhere. We did not wish to take him with us 

 on our way eastwards, but we engaged him to guide us 

 to the haunts of the saiga on our return in the spring. 

 He informed us that, to reach the best place he knew 

 of, would take two marches northwards to the very edge 

 of the hills where they merge into the steppes. 



As we rode northwards, it was hard to believe that 

 the country was the same which we had passed over 

 only two months before. The snow had all gone, and, 

 in its place, the earth was covered with short tufts of 

 bright green grass and small desert plants of various 

 kinds. In the hollows, where the snow had lain deep, 

 and left behind abundant moisture, patches of dwarf 



