Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/281

 not to fire at a single kara-sulta or at a dzeren above 200 yards; for nine out of ten shots you fire beyond that range will to a certainty be wasted. In practice, however, this rule is difficult to observe. Assuming that you have been walking for an hour or two, climbing from the top of one hillock to another, sinking knee-deep in the loose sands with the perspiration pouring from your face, and that all of a sudden you see the coveted animal before you, but above 200 yards off. You are well aware that you cannot approach any closer; that if you are not very careful you may never see it again; that every minute is of value; and lastly, that you hold a rifle in your hands which will carry a long distance and hit the smallest object; with all this, can you resist the temptation of a shot? You raise the sight on your rifle, lie down, take a steady aim; the gunpowder flashes fire, and the bullet buries itself in the sand, having either fallen short of or gone beyond the antelope, which is out of sight the next moment. Provoked and disgusted with your ill luck, you examine the spot where it stood, and on measuring the distance, you find that you are forty paces or more out of your reckoning. This is a great mistake to make, but it is unavoidable when you have to estimate your distance suddenly, often in a recumbent position, with your head only just raised above the hillock and when it is impossible to see any intermediate objects. Doubtless a rifle with a long point-blank range in this instance is the