A DEER-DRIVE ON THE TIAN SHAN. 205 



nikul and Bugus Kungurga, I found a good many 

 shepherds about, and determined to try a deer- 

 drive, which my shikari agreed was the only 

 way to get a shot in these dense jungles ; but 

 he only succeeded in getting four men, which 

 with three of my own made seven. The great 

 difficulty was to get a possible place to drive, 

 for the forest was very extensive and thick ; the 

 beaters also found it very hard to keep in line, 

 as they could not take a point to move upon, 

 and kept losing sight of one another. At the 

 end of every beat (and I tried it for three days) 

 one of them had always put up something, but 

 nothing ever came within sight of where I was 

 posted, the deer evidently would not drive. 



It was now the 27th of March, and the stags, 

 it struck me, were losing their horns, so I deter- 

 mined to waste no more time, but return to Aksu, 

 and go from there to Usturfan, as it would pro- 

 bably now be warmer in the mountains ; and I 

 was very keen to get one of the Tian Shan sheep, 

 which by all accounts were plentiful in the hills 

 above that place. Accordingly I made straight 

 tracks by Bugus Kungurga, Khotan Kama, and 

 Karatal, for Aksu, which we reached in eight days. 



The Russian Aksakal met me outside the town, 



