120 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



but always turned straight away before we were near 

 enough to shoot. 



After an hour we returned to the carts — for Yvette 

 was exhausted from excitement — and the lama took her 

 place. We left the great herd and turned southward, 

 parallel to the road. A mile away we found more ante- 

 lope; at least a thousand were scattered about feeding 

 quietly like those we had driven north. It seemed as 

 though all the gazelles in Mongolia had concentrated on 

 those few miles of plain. 



The ponies were so exhausted that we decided to try 

 a drive and leave the main herd in peace. When we 

 were concealed from view in the bottom of a land swell 

 I slipped off and hobbled Kublai Khan. The poor fel- 

 low was so tired he could only stand with drooping-head, 

 even though there was rich grass beneath his feet. I 

 sent the lama in a long circle to get behind the herd, 

 while I crawled a few hundred yards away and snuggled 

 out of sight into an old wolf den. 



I watched the antelope for fifteen minutes through 

 my binoculars. They were feeding in a vast semicircle, 

 entirely unconscious of my presence. Suddenly every 

 head went up ; they stared fixedly toward the west for 

 a moment, and were off like the wind. About five hun- 

 dred drew together in a compact mass, but a dozen 

 smaller herds scattered wildly, running in every direc- 

 tion except toward me. They had seen the lama before 

 he had succeeded in completely encircling them, and the 

 drive was ruined. 



The Mongols kill great numbers of antelope in just 



