SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
distance, so that our bullets fell short. With a 
few bounds he was up the side of the hill and away. 
Further up the valley three magnificent rams, which 
had been disturbed by some woodcutters, came 
bounding down a small ravine, but, catching sight 
of us, they turned abruptly, and with incredible 
speed tore diagonally across the steep mountain 
side. Gaining the valley bottom, they broke 
away in the direction we had just come, and were 
soon out of sight round a bend. A shot or two 
at these also failed to find a mark. 
Somewhat discouraged by our poor shooting, 
we turned up a side ravine, and after a long, 
gradual ascent, came out upon some grassy up- 
lands. As we skirted the edge of these, the quick 
eye of the Mongol detected three rams grazing 
upon a patch of green grass at the bottom of 
a valley. This was what we wanted, so ducking 
down to keep out of sight, we crept away from the 
crest of the ridge, and made a long detour. On 
our way we put up a herd of six or eight ewes, 
which scampered off, stopping every now and 
then to gaze back at us. At last we reached a 
clump of rocks, which I had marked as _ being 
directly above the grazing rams. Cautiously 
peeping over, I was disappointed to find the latter 
had gone, but, on looking up, I saw all three 
grazing on the opposite slope, about four hundred 
yards away, as I estimated. I beckoned to 
Warrington to creep up beside me: we both 
114 
