36 THE GORAL. 



The best of shots are often beaten by this elusive little quadruped, 

 and I know of more than one sportsman in this country with long lists 

 of big game to their credits, to whom it would not be safe to mention 

 the word goral. 



Nevertheless, that the goral can be secured, and just how this 

 may be done, the following narratives will show. 



My first experience of the goral was gained in the Chin-ling moun- 

 tains south of Si-an Fu, Shensi. Here I was camped in a little temple 

 in a deep ravine, while I scoured the neighbouring peaks and ridges 

 for specimens. One day I was shown a pair of goral 's horns and 

 was told that these animals were very plentiful on a certain peak 

 not far away. Accordingly I set off next day, accompanied by my 

 boy and, after a stiff climb, reached the summit of the peak m 

 question. There we found a little temple, the inmates of which told 

 me that we would find a goral in a certain small cut on the east side 

 of the peak. With great difficulty, owing to the dense scrub, matted 

 trees and steep slopes, we made our way to the cut, and sure enough 

 as we reached it, out jumped a large goral. I was in a very awkward 

 position for shooting, so that the animal escaped me and was soon out 

 of sight. 



We followed its trail, ho^vever, which led us round the shoulder 

 of the peak, ending abruptly on the edge of a precipice, which fell 

 away almost sheer for some hundreds of feet. I decided to climb down 

 after my quarry, but had not gone far before the goral broke cover, 

 and climbing rapidly upwards vanished iover the top as my rifle rang 

 out. Fortunately my boy was ready with the shotgun and brought 

 the animal down with a well directed charge of buckshot. Though 

 I could not claimi the honours of the chase, I was more than pleased 

 at securing this fine specimen for my collection. 



It was some years before I got another opportunity of shooting a 

 goral. This was in the mountainous country of North Shansi. Here, 

 with three companions, I put in several days after goats, as we call- 

 ed them. We had all done very well with sheep, roedeer and wapiti, 

 but we failed to secure a goat. On one occasion two of the party 

 went out specially to get' one of these animals. After a hard climb up 

 some precipitous slopes, they were stationed by the native hunters 

 on nanow ledges, from which giddy perches they could command two 

 or three other ledges, and incidentally an uninterrupted view of the 

 stream and boulder-strewn bed a thousand feet below them. The na- 

 tives, with many parting injunctions to the sportsmen, not to move, 

 then made a detour to the head of some adjacent cliffs and began 

 heaving over recks and shouting. Very soon two goats broke cover 



