Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/218

196 them in the mountains by going against the wind; in the open I usually stalked them in the following way. When within three hundred paces I would drop on my knees and raise my rifle above my head with the stand inverted, so that the legs might look like horns; my costume, too, a Siberian shooting coat made of young reindeer skin with the hair outside, helped to deceive the short-sighted animal. In this way I would crawl up to within 200 or even 150 yards, prop my rifle on its rest, place some cartridges in my cap which I laid on the ground beside me, and fire in a kneeling posture. If the first shot took effect the animal would turn and go off, followed by my bullets until it was out of range. An old bull, however, would often charge with horns lowered and tail up, but in a stupid indecisive manner, advancing a few paces, and then stopping and lashing its tail furiously; a second shot, and it would renew the charge with a similar result, until after being pierced by perhaps a dozen bullets, when it would fall dead, without having come nearer than 100 paces. Sometimes after being hit twice or thrice it would take to flight, but on receiving another wound it would turn and again offer a fair mark for my rifle. Of all the yaks we killed, only two advanced to within 40 paces of us, and these would probably have come to closer quarters had we not killed them. I should think, however, that the nearer they are to the sportsman the more cowardly and undecided they become.

In order to give my readers a better notion of