SHOOTING OVIS POLII ON THE PAMIRS. 57 



middle of the body grey, darker on the back and getting lighter down 

 the ribs. Each hair is marked "with white and black rings like a 

 porcupine's quills. We cut off the head and hind legs for food and 

 returned to the camp. 



Another day, not far from this same nullah, I spent a very long 

 time in search of Ovis^ hoping to shoot a good ram, as the day before 

 I had killed a female, and we consequently had plenty of meat in camp. 

 After many hours we saw a herd of eleven rams going through a 

 broad valley to a narrow nullah in the middle of snowy peaks. 



As it appeared to me that it was impossible for them to get cut of 

 this nullah except by a very high pass, over newly-fallen snow, I 

 thought it probable they would stop there, so I went after them. We 

 passed by the foot of a big and very broken " glacier " coming from 

 the Kaufman peak, and shortly after began to ascend the said nullah. 

 Just when we were engaged in a difficult place we saw the arkars 

 again. They were not so far as we expected, but hearing the stones 

 rolling they saw us and went on up-hill at a good canter. We were 

 at about 16,000 feet; the ponies were done for, and one of my 

 guides was disabled by mountain sickness ; so I left him with the 

 ponies and went about 500 feet higher to have a good look at the 

 whole nullah. Eight bslow was a tiny little lake with a patch of 

 grass close by. All round were stony slopes, very steep indeed, under 

 awfully high peaks. There was practically no exit from such a place 

 even for an Ovis polii. We had a long inspection of the ground and 

 finally discovered one Ovis coming slowly down near the lake. 

 Shortly after there were three in sight. It was impossible to see if 

 they had good horns, but I thought arkars which lived in such a 

 secluded place must be wary old males, so I decided to go after them. 



The descent by some long sheets of ice and over rocks was not at 

 all easy, but we got to the bottom of the nullah at last. Soon after 

 we discovered an Ovis, about 700 yards off, looking at us from a spur. 

 He went off at once and there were the eleven rams running down- 

 hill. It was evidently the same herd we had been after all the morn- 

 ing. This time they galloped at full speed, crossed the valley, went 

 up the left side of it and disappeared over a high rocky spur. 

 Evidently thoy were going back to the next big nullah, where we had 

 seen them first. The only plan was to try and follow the river, Jind as 



