308 SHORT STALKS 



liiiid and calf stood 'at gaze/ with great wondering eyes. 

 The calf, which was quite as big as a Scotch hind, would 

 have been a welcome addition to our larder, hut I had no 

 intention of disturbing the valley on the first day with the 

 report of a '500 rifle, save for a master stag. I returned 

 to the tents full of sanguine expectation. 



" The folio wino; morning I set out with Achmet and 

 Celestin. The Turk took me from 5.30 a.m. till 10 o'clock 

 on the track of a big stag, down the long slope of the gorge 

 below our encampment, up the opposite mountain, over 

 rocks and through dense forest, till with the heat, already 

 great, and the long climb, I should have called for ' time ' 

 had I not been excited bv the slot of the stas^ which was, 

 to my imagination, as big as that of a shorthorn bull. 



" At last Achmet stopped, sat down and said, with a little 

 chuck of his chin, ' yok ! yok!' (no good) a conclusion to 

 which I had come some time Ijefore. For an hour we 

 carried on a conversation a V Enfant Prodicjue, assisted by 

 my limited Turkish vocabulary, while the Turk smoked 

 cigarettes made from my tobacco, and then we resumed 

 the chase and all but secured a prize. — ' All buts ' seemed 

 to be my fate in the Ak Dagh. 



" About mid-day we were clambering over some hot 

 glaring white rocks as softly as we could, to the edge of a 

 patch of wood that filled a deep ravine. On reaching the 

 first clump of trees Achmet seemed to know instinctively 

 that there was game in front, he bent forward over a rock, 

 pulled aside a big l)ranch of a fir tree and stood like a 

 pointer. By the movement of his fingers 1 saw he wanted 

 me to draw up ; I did so inch 1)y inch and distinguished, 

 fifty or sixty yards below me, in the trees the white patch 



