5th May.—Travelled far this day over most rugged country, but once again did not succeed in bagging sheep.
On returning to camp in the afternoon, blustering wind-squalls again made the skinning of small specimens almost impossible, and I suddenly made up my mind to pack up and go on to Baguezan, prompted partly by the unsatisfactory conditions at camp and partly by the wishes of the Chief and his men, who were impatient to reach their homes.
Thus closed the first few days of hunting in the Aïr mountains without any great measure of success. But I had thoroughly enjoyed the search for sheep amongst the wild grandeur of strange mountains and had found a type of hard hunting which, I fancy, would rejoice the heart of any sportsman. Moreover, in the Chief of Baguezan I had found a splendid hunter, full of shrewd knowledge of the habits of the animals of his country, a born mountaineer, active as a cat among the rocks, familiar with every nook and cranny in the hills, and tireless in his quest for game.
At a later date I was very successful in similar hunting, and secured fine representative specimens of the Barbary sheep of Aïr, which the Hausa natives name Ragondoutchie (or Ragonduchi) and the Tuaregs Afitell, and which has proved to be a new sub-species which Lord Rothschild has named Ammotragus lervia angusi.
The head of the best male specimen had horns measuring 21 ins. in length and of 20½ ins. span, while the animal weighed 152 lbs. The largest sheep I shot was an old one which weighed 164 lbs., with damaged horns that had no larger dimensions than those recorded above.
CHAPTER XI
IN BAGUEZAN MOUNTAINS
I had no sooner departed outside the immediate neighbourhood of the Fort of Agades, in commencing the journey to Baguezan, as described in the preceding chapter, than the Chief, Minerou, and his glib-tongued companions, who had all put their heads together-even the two goumiers joining in—endeavoured to dissuade me from my purpose to climb into Baguezan Mountains, and strongly advised my return to Agades. Their chief argument was that the camels carrying my stores could not possibly ascend the mountain pass. From which I judged that they were foolishly suspicious of the stranger, and did not want me to pry into their mountain stronghold. They kept up plying me with similar doubtful stories for the next three days, by which time we had camped at Arra, whereafter they desisted, seeing that I would on no account be shaken in my purpose before I had actually seen the pass in Baguezan. The following days of sheep hunting with the Chief brought us more closely together and enabled me to break down, at least outwardly, the barrier of distrust of me; until, in a moment of confidence, seeing that I would not be hoodwinked, he went so far as to admit that the ascent into Baguezan, for me and my stores, could be accomplished.
So that it transpired that on 6th May we climbed the slopes of Baguezan and entered the strange, awesome mountain stronghold.
There are, the natives declare, but two ways by which camels can enter Baguezan mountains: one in the southern slopes above a camping-place known to the natives as Tokede, which is the principal pass and that which we used, while the other (the only other pass I have seen, which endorses, to some extent, native statements) lies N.W., and is a means of exit to, or entrance from, the north, which is principally used at the present time by natives passing between Baguezan and Timia. Both are rocky, awkward paths, no wider than game-tracks, that wend their way zigzagging upward over steep slopes where foothold for beasts of burden has been searched for and found possible, while in many rough places the path has been hewn and excavated by the hands of men where it has been necessary.
Slowly the surefooted patient mountain-reared camels of Aïr succeed in ascending or descending these paths, sometimes slipping and falling to their knees, so treacherous the foothold, and always some beasts of the caravan make the journey at the expense of torn nails and bleeding feet.