28 THE FRONTIER DISTRICT OF ASTOR 



but this is not common. In summer, as the snows melt, 

 the old males retire to the highest and most unfrequented 

 mountains, and it is then generally useless to hunt for 

 them, as they have such a vast range, and can find food 

 in places perfectly inaccessible to man. The females and 

 young ones may be met with all the year round, and often 

 at no very great elevation," 



The most wide-awake animal in creation is certainly the 

 female ibex, and she seems to exercise her vigilance solely 

 for the benefit of the ungrateful male, who is by no means 

 so watchful ; in fact, if he is old and lazy, he keeps no 

 look-out at all after having comfortably laid himself up for 

 the day. That duty falls to his mate, and admirably she 

 performs it. Uncomfortably perched on a jutting rock far 

 above the rest of the flock, securely sleejDing on some 

 soft patch of level or gently sloping ground below, she 

 lies keeping her tireless watch. The patient native or 

 Kashmiri is used to her sentry duty, and, after taking in 

 the situation, he too falls asleep like the bearded males he 

 is trying to circumvent ; but the impatient Saxon fumes 

 and swears in the intervals of studying the little animal 

 through his glasses. The case is perfectly hopeless ; there 

 is no approach nearer than a thousand yards, without 

 instant detection — for several hours to come at any rate ; 

 and the language that contaminates the mountain air is 

 truly awful. How often have I resolved, in these moments 

 of desperation, to shoot that one female in particular, and 

 allow the long-horned careless ones, sleeping just beyond 

 range, to go in peace, purely for the satisfaction of the thing. 

 That feeling is not peculiar to myself ; I am sure others 

 similarly placed have felt the same. The female ibex is 

 the hete noir of the sportsman ; she has spoiled many a 

 careful stalk, and at other times has forced him to trudge 

 many and many a weary mile to escape her all-seeing eye ; 



