70 MARKHOR SHOOTING 



taking old scoundrel, and too old for quick travelling : 1 

 made a mistake in taking him on. I wrote letters till 

 noon, and, having despatched the postman on his return 

 journey, took bedding and food and went down the main 

 stream to the field, a mile or so above Damot village, and 

 camped under a solitary tree. This was quite fresh ground, 

 and Mirza Khan was confident of showing sport. 



He said large markhor were always seen on the last spurs 

 of the range, between the main stream and the Indus, but 

 higher up the hill we sighted a flock on the farthest ridge 

 overhandno' the river, and went after them at once, 

 ascending and descending very cautiously about half a 

 dozen intervening ridges and deep ravines. When the 

 animals were first sighted they were coming down, 

 apparently towards us, so that, after the third or fourth 

 ravine had been crossed, we moved along with greater 

 caution, expecting to meet them face to face as we topped 

 each ridge. After creeping slowly to the top, and making 

 careful survey of the ground below us, we rushed down the 

 next slope at best pace, and repeated our tactics on the 

 next hillside, and so on till we came to the last ravine, 

 just above which we had sighted the flock. All our 

 trouble was wasted, however, for when we arrived within 

 a short distance of the spot where the markhor had been 

 last seen, we saw by their tracks that they had gone along 

 grazing up the ravine, out of our view all the time, and 

 had crossed over to the slope running down to the Indus. 



Feeling rather done, I sat down while Mirza Khan 

 followed up the track, step by step, to the top. I watched 

 him creeping along ledges of rock, and holding on like 

 grim death, and thanked my stars I was not with him ! 

 But fifteen minutes later I was working my way along the 

 very same ledges, regardless of anything but the fact that 

 the markhor were just below the ridge in front of me and 



