22 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



many wild goats amongst the wooded ravines below 

 us, and that the best time to look for them was in 

 the early morning and late evening. He then told off 

 one of his men to go with me in search of them. As 

 we started downhill, I imagined that we should have 

 to return to where we had left Achmet later on ; but 

 I soon discovered that he and the other men were fol- 

 lowing us slowly at a distance. With my guide I now 

 advanced very cautiously through the pine forest, look- 

 ing carefully into all the ravines with which the side 

 of the mountain was seamed ; and when it grew so 

 dusk that I could no longer see the sights of my rifle, 

 we halted until the other men joined us, and then pre- 

 pared to pass the night where we were. As we were 

 on a very steep hillside, it was impossible to find a 

 piece of level ground sufficiently large to accommo- 

 date us all. Indeed, there was no level ground at 

 all ; but I found a place behind the roots of a fallen 

 pine-tree where I was able to make myself pretty com- 

 fortable. The ground we went over this evening 

 looked excellent for any wild animal loving rocky 

 ravines and pine-covered mountain slopes; but I take 

 it that at the time of my visit there were very few wild 

 goats on the mountain, as I saw very few tracks, and 

 those always of single animals, none of them looking 

 at all fresh. I came to the conclusion that there were 

 too many hungry Yuruks about with guns to render 

 it probable that any kind of game would be either 

 plentiful or easily obtainable, so I determined not to 



