SPEED MARVELS OF THE GOBI DESERT 17 



male in the side and she plunged forward into the grass. 



I realized then what Coltman meant when he said that 

 the antelope had not begun to run. At the first shot 

 every animal in the herd seemed to flatten itself and set- 

 tle to its work. They did not run — ^they simply flew 

 across the ground, their legs showing only as a blur. 

 The one I killed was four hundred yards away, and I 

 held four feet ahead when I pulled the trigger. They 

 could not have been traveling less than fifty-five or sixty 

 miles an hour, for they were running in a semicircle 

 about the car while we were moving at forty miles in a 

 straight line. 



Those are the facts in the case. I can see my readers 

 raise their brows incredulously, for that is exactly what 

 I would have done before this demonstration. Well, 

 there is one way to prove it and that is to come and try 

 it for yourselves. Moreover, I can see some sportsmen 

 smile for another reason. I mentioned that the antelope 

 I killed was four hundred yards away. I know how far 

 it was, for I paced it off. I may say, in passing, that I 

 had never before killed a running animal at that range. 

 Ninety per cent of my shooting had been well within 

 one hundred and fifty yards, but in Mongolia conditions 

 are most extraordinary. 



In the brilliant atmosphere an antelope at four hun- 

 dred yards appears as large as it would at one hundred 

 in most other parts of the world; and on the flat plains, 

 where there is not a bush or a shrub to obscure the view, 

 a tiny stone stands out like a golf ball on the putting 

 green. Because of these conditions there is strong temp- 



