Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/339

 the wary animal of impending danger, and in a moment he was out of sight. How can I describe our disappointment! all our labour was spent in vain, and we had to recommence our work, i.e. look and listen for other kuku-yamans.

But then when everything went smoothly, and we were fortunate enough to get within 200 or 150 paces of the sheep, with what a beating heart would I lean my rifle on a projecting ledge and aim! In a moment the report of the discharge rolled through the ravines of the wild mountains, and the kuku-yaman, pierced with the shot, fell on a rock, or rolled down into the valley below, leaving a bloody trail behind it. Sometimes, if only wounded, the wild sheep would start off, then a second bullet from my rifle laid it low on the spot. This animal is, however, difficult to kill, and will often escape though mortally wounded.

As soon as we had descended to the slaughtered sheep we cut it up, the Mongol taking as his share the entrails, &c.; then tying the legs of the animal together, he would throw it over his shoulder, and we would start for camp heavily laden. When the droughts in spring parch up all the grass on the mountains, the kuku-yamans feed on the leaves of the trees, and will even spring on to the trees for this purpose. Of course this may be an exceptional case; but I myself, in May 1871, saw two of these animals on a wide-spreading elm fourteen feet from the ground, on a spur of the mountains bordering the left bank of the Hoang-ho.