AFTER A WOUNDED GOOLJA. 255 



stern chase was not encouraging. Where could 

 the first bullet have struck him ? There was 

 plenty of blood on the track, so there was not 

 much fear of losing it. 



Previous experience had taught me what a 

 difficult beast to catch a wounded goolja is, but 

 my wildest dreams had never conceived what it 

 is possible for them to do until following this 

 one. He went away down the slopes, stopping 

 every now and again to look about, leaving lots 

 of blood on his trail. Twice we nearly caught 

 him, but on each occasion only saw his head, so 

 I could not shoot. On and on he went over the 

 spurs, and at last, leaving the hill, descended to 

 the flat pamir below. It was getting on for 

 afternoon, and he had vanished out of sight! 



About half a mile from the hills was the river : 

 here was a stumper. The edges were frozen on 

 both sides, with an interval of deep running- 

 water about 20 yards wide in the centre. The 

 trail showed that the plucky animal had swum 

 across this, so follow we must. Karim Khan 

 said it was impossible : it certainly looked rather 

 like it, and I began to fear we were done, for the 

 water was too cold to swim, visions of cramp 

 floated before me, when suddenly an inspiration 



