154 FROM YARKAND TO AKSU. 



day more intense. I always dreaded coming 

 across a stag in the early hours : my gloves, being 

 made of sheepskin, were not calculated to handle 

 a rifle, and when I pulled them off, my rifle-barrels 

 were so cold that they nearly took the skin off my 

 fingers. 



I lost a stag, however, in another way, owing 

 to a stupid habit of the shikaris. With the high 

 grass and scrub jungle, it is always difficult to 

 spot an animal at some distance. Therefore 

 the shikaris, whenever they find a tree they can 

 climb easily, or a hillock rather higher than the 

 rest which will give them a view over the plain, 

 make a point of ascending it. Sometimes these 

 hillocks are crowned with a clump of tamarisk 

 bushes, which makes it all right ; but when they 

 are bare at the top, and the man runs up and 

 squats like a crow, the odds are that if there is an 

 animal within a mile, he will see the man before 

 the man sees him. 



In spite of having cautioned my shikari about 

 this, the first time I was a little way behind, off 

 he went as usual, and I caught sight of him beck- 

 oning to me in the most excited manner. Grasp- 

 ing the situation, and smothering a not very com- 

 plimentary phrase, I rushed to the top, cocking 



