SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
most pig, he swerved to one side. The others 
followed suit, but before the last one had passed 
I managed to reverse my rifle once more, and, 
firing from the hip, hit him in the jaw. The 
wounded animal broke away from the rest of the 
sounder, and, trying to cross a deep water-course, 
fell an easy mark to my second shot. 
Besides the pigs we secured some roedeer and 
eared pheasants, this being the first occasion on 
which I had actually seen the latter, though I had 
often heard them without knowing what they 
were. 
Two of the roedeer were bagged on the last day 
of the year, while I was out hunting for something 
with which to furnish our New Year’s dinner. 
Accompanied by my trapper, who carried my 
shot-gun, I was making my way up a broad 
ravine the sides of which were heavily timbered. 
There was a large open space near the head of the 
ravine, and a woodman’s path led up through the 
woods to this spot, enabling us to get quietly 
through the woods to the edge of the glade. Some 
five hundred yards up the slope were three fine 
bucks quietly grazing. Leaving the trapper in 
the shelter of the woods, I dropped upon my 
hands and knees and wormed my way over the 
ground. Taking care not to break any dry twigs 
or to disturb any leaves, Imade my way slowly up 
towards the unsuspecting deer. By making the 
best use of a slight dip in the ground and a few 
49 E 
