A LAGOON ON THE TARIM. 2OI 



He looked every inch a king as he swam along, the 

 crowd of lesser fowl making way for him. So far 

 as I could see, he appeared to be identical with 

 our tame species. Crawling carefully back, I left 

 the place without disturbing the birds, intending 

 to return in the morning for a shot at the swan ; 

 but when I got there the lagoon was frozen hard 

 and not a thing in it, except a small flock of geese 

 sitting on the ice. So hard had it frozen during 

 the night, that the ice on the shallow end bore 

 my weight without breaking. 



Wending my way along the jungle of tama- 

 risks and round the hillocks, all of a sudden 

 I heard a snort and a rush in front, and just 

 got a glimpse of a stag as he disappeared. 

 The whole thing was done so quickly, that even 

 had I been at full -cock with the rifle at the 

 ready, I should hardly have had time for a 

 snap-shot. From the passing glimpse of his 

 dun carcase he must have been a full-grown 

 beast. 



When we had gone about sixteen miles from 

 the last camp, we came to a great open grass- 

 prairie, extending for some miles in a westerly 

 direction. To the east was forest, hillocks, and 

 high grass, where the shikari said there was 



