390 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HiSTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XIII. 
yhetos of the dead ram: he pulled out his knife and asked me how I wanted its 
throat cut. The beast had been dead half an hour, but, to Rakhmait’s horror, 
the meat was quite “ halal” in the opinion of Dhe Khan and the yak-drivers. 
It now struck me that there was still time to look after my friend the bear— 
so, taking Rakhmat with me, I started off across the valley. We could find 
no trace of him, however, and before long another snowstorm sent us back 
to camp. 
Next day one of Dhe Khan’s dogs distinguished itself by killing a marmot, 
We were riding along when suddenly Dhe Khan kicked his yak into a 
canter, at the same time leaning over and slipping one of his dogs. I then 
saw in the distance a marmot, evidently travelling from one hole to another. 
It was a close thing, The poor little beast had all but reached his home 
when the dog ran into it and killed it, By the way, I noticed on three 
occasions on the Pamirs acurious habit of the marmot which I do not 
remember to have seen recorded anywhere—that is, that if one suddenly 
comes upon one of these beasts away from its hole it does not attempt to 
escape by running, but shams dead. The first time I came across one doing 
this I was completely taken in, and could hardly believe the Kirghiz who 
told me it was shamming. It did not stir as we stood over and examined 
it until the Kirghiz, putting his stick under it, chucked it up in the air, — 
when, on coming to its feet again, it scuttled off as hard as it could. 
After this I had no luck for several days, seeing plenty of O, poli but nothing 
worth shooting, so, paying off Dhe Khan and his men, I started for another 
part of the Pamirs, Here on one of my marches I had rather a curious 
accident, I was riding a camel which we had taken with us to ford us over 
several streams we had to cross. The road led across a valley covered with 
hard snow orice. This was good enough going, but I noticed in several 
places wet-looking streaks on the snow, which I did not much like the look 
of. The Kirghiz who was leading the camel now made straight across one 
of these streaks, Thiaking he knew more about it than I did, I said nothing 
but prepared for a jump, as I expected that if the ice broke the camel could 
go down perhaps a foot or so. Notking happened as the Kirghiz crossed the 
place, but when the camel got onit there wasacrash like thunder, and I 
found myself lying on my back on the ice, with the camel disappearing into 
a yawning chasm in front of me, A crack about 4ft. wide now extended for 
20 or 30 yards. The camel was in the middle of it, complaining loudly, jam- 
med by his hump, with his forequarters above the surface, while his hinder 
parts were dangling in the gulf below. The place was nine or ten fect deep, 
with a shallow river flowing at the bottom, Luckily our baggage was close 
by, and, with the help of the yak-drivers and all the loading ropes, we at last 
managed to extricate the unfortunate beast. Ifit had not been as quiet as a 
lamb it would never have got out at all, as any struggling would have sent it 
into the chasm altogether. It seemed to know this, for it never stirred till 
