140 Russian Mission from Orenbourg to Bokhara. [July 



attention to the bank of the river.lt was composed of many layers of conglo- 

 merate of gravel and clay, very interesting to a geologist. I was walk- 

 ing along by the precipice, sometimes on the ice, and sometimes on the 

 ground seeking petrifactions, or other curious objects, when I suddenly 

 saw in the air, a large animal that had just sprung from the top of the 

 hill, and appeared about to precipitate itself upon me. I drew back, 

 and he fell directly at my feet, on the ice, fracturing his limbs in his 

 fall. It was a saiga, a species of antelope, the first I ever saw. It 

 had been hunted by the Cossacks belonging to the escort, and they 

 had pursued it from the plain to the top of the precipice. In its anxiety 

 to escape them, it met its fate, owing to the blind terror characteristic 

 of the saigas, and which often throws them into the hands of the 

 hunters. The Kirghiz know how to take advantage of it; they station 

 themselves by the rivers, near the places where these animals are ac- 

 customed to resort, for the purpose of drinking — and they drive upon 

 an inclined plain several rows of sharp reeds placed in a semi-circle, 

 one behind another ; at intervals of about twelve feet on each wide of 

 these reeds, they raise mounds of earth, and thus form an arch, of which 

 the extremities are about fifty fathoms apart. When the herds of ante- 

 lope come, the concealed Kirghiz start up, and frighten them towards 

 this arch. The animals take the mounds for men, and fly towards the 

 reeds, and entangle themselves in great numbers? The Cossacks of the 

 Don chace them in another manner. During the great heats of summer, 

 the antelopes assemble in flocks of from 400 to 500, and emigrate to a 

 cooler region, when they swim the Don : the Cossacks throw themselves 

 into the river armed with a knife, and kill vast numbers in the water. 



People worthy of credit have assured me, that in the moun- 

 tains of Gouberlinsk or Oural, during the season of the emigra- 

 tion of the antelopes, which takes place in June, herds of 8000 

 and 9000 are seen. The flesh of these animals is delicious, and the 

 skins are used for clothes. It is in general very difficult to approach 

 them, except during the great heats. The beasts then search some 

 shade, and when there are no bushes or trees, on the great plains, twenty 

 antelopes will frequently place themselves close behind each other, the 

 leading one putting its head ^behind a great stone, or in a hole ; the 

 hunter can then approach, and if he succeeds in killing the leading one, 

 those that are behind will generally take its place, and several may be 

 shot in succession. 



The antelope has a very peculiar nose, it, is arched like those of the 

 Kirghiz sheep, formed with two large and deep nostrils, covered with a 

 soft and very elastic cartilage. These nostrils are so open, that flies and 



