Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/65

 The deer we saw in Yulduz belong to the same kind as those inhabiting the forests of the Tian Shan. The stags are of enormous size; the does are smaller, but fully equal to the full-grown male of the European deer (Cervus elaphus). Owing to the absence of forests in Yulduz, the deer frequent the belts of low bushes, climbing the rocks as easily as the mountain sheep, and so like these as to be mistaken for them at a distance. In spring, during the months of May and June, they are eagerly pursued by hunters for the sake of their young horns—so called ‘panti’ which fetch high prices in China. Thus, in Kulja, a pair of large, six-pointed antlers is worth fifty to seventy roubles, in first hands; and even small ones fetch fifteen, twenty, or thirty roubles. The profits derived from this chase induce Russian and native hunters to pursue it with axdour during the spring, throughout the vast expanse of Asia, from Turkestan to the sea of Japan.

After we had done hunting we turned into the Kaidu valley, crossing the southern slope of the Tian Shan. The ascent of the pass from the Yulduz side is so gradual as to be hardly