ANOTHER HUNT 43 



simply to go on and on until 1 came to good ground 

 which I could occupy. The shik;iris returned in the 

 evening, saying they had seen two large m;irkhor — one 

 very old and emaciated, and with horns of three curves. 

 Accordingly I got up early and went straight up hill 

 above camp. After a long pull we got to the top of the 

 lidge dividing the Garai from the Amatabar, and after 

 some searching with glasses the shikaris spotted a large 

 markhor on a ridge of rocks on the opposite side, but he 

 was not the three-curved one. I never saw this animal 

 the whole day, and for a very good reason — he existed 

 only in the imaginations of my men. Ghari'ba said there 

 was no way of getting at the markhor opposite, unless 

 we went up the valley a day's journey, and then came 

 back on the other side. If we went straight down and 

 up, the quarry would see us before we had gone a 

 hundred yards ; so there was nothing to do but study his 

 manners and customs during the day, in the hope that he 

 would get into a more favourable position by evening. I 

 examined him carefully through the big telescope ; he was 

 not much larger than the one I had shot, but his horns 

 perhaps were a few inches longer. I could see plainly 

 that they diverged outwards in a very remarkable way. 

 He seemed very uneasy and alarmed ; he did not graze 

 for more than five minutes at a time in any one spot, 

 though it was his feeding time, but kept to the rocks, 

 looking about. It appeared to me that he was either ill 

 or wounded, or had very lately been fired at. The 

 shikaris said a shot was heard here the day we came up 

 — most likely a shepherd's. We saw a ilock of ibex 

 higher up the valley, but no big horns. 



In these valleys the wind blows upwards from sunrise 

 to sunset, and the reverse way during the night. Sharafa 

 had studied this part of his work thoroughly, and was 



