THE GAME OF THE PLAINS 6oi 



to them ; a wounded animal will sometimes utter the 

 same cry. 



The summer programme of these two hunters was to 

 hunt the burkark till the beginning of June, and then 

 hurry up into the forested mountains to the south for 

 a month's " bogo " (stag) hunting, and then back to the 

 burkark again. When it is remembered that the 

 Chinese merchants will readily give as much as from 

 a hundred to two hundred roubles for a good pair of 

 wapiti horns in the velvet it can be understood that a 

 hunter who secures even a moderate pair, and ten or 

 twelve pairs of saiga-horns, has made more than enough 

 to support himself and family for a year. Often several 

 hunters combine and divide the spoils equally. 



The natives have a method of hunting the saiga 

 which is often successful in the flattest and barest 

 country ; on one occasion we saw them employ this 

 method. On finding some burkark, some eight men ride 

 slowly towards them in pairs with an interval of about 

 eighty yards between each pair, the two flank pairs 

 being well advanced ; as soon as the game becomes 

 alarmed, and begins to move away from them, the 

 horsemen quicken their pace till they are tearing along 

 at full gallop. In this first rush the horsemen gain 

 shghtly on their quarry, who, thinking that they are 

 going to be surrounded, break back. As soon as the 

 horsemen see them about to do this, one of every pair 

 slips from his horse and lies flat on the ground with his 

 gun ready. The others continue to advance, leading 

 the riderless horses. The saiga then break back between 

 the horsemen, often giving the prostrate men an easy 

 chance. 



I have not yet dealt with the wild-ass, or "kulon," 



