76 MARKHOR SHOOTING 



caution, to hear that there were three markhor just in 

 front of the rock where I had been sitting, not two 

 hundred yards off, but invisible from that point on account 

 of the trees. I went lower down with the men and watched 

 these markhor for more than an hour, for they were in a 

 bad place, and we could not get closer as the ground was 

 covered with dry birch leaves which crackled loudly under 

 foot. After a time the markhor moved, and we had to do 

 so too. We went as far as we could, but the beasts were 

 still more than three hundred yards off, and were feeding 

 up, while we had come down, under the impression that 

 they would feed down, as their custom is. The sun was 

 blazing straight in my face, while the markhor were in the 

 shadow of the opposite spur, so I decided to fire before 

 they grazed out of sight. I had eight shots, all at over 

 three hundred yards, and missed every time ! I simply 

 could not see the foresight through the blinding glare of 

 the level sun, and the shots went high. I saw only two 

 of the markhor — one a venerable old fellow with flowing 

 beard and shaggy sides, whom I ought to have nailed at 

 the first shot. 



We had a troublesome march next day when we moved. 

 The uround was so difficult and dangerous that we did not 

 make more than a mile in two hours. We had to cross a 

 ravine with perpendicular rocky sides, fifty feet deep at 

 least ; we had to scramble down rocks on one side and 

 climb up a straight wall on the other. A fall, perhaps, would 

 not have hurt anyone much, as the bottom was full of snow ; 

 but the risk lay in the certainty that if one did fall on the 

 snow, he was likely to roll down the very steep ravine for about 

 twenty yards to the edge of a sheer precipice of — heaven 

 knows how deep. It came on to snow and rain after 

 mid-day with a very cold and cutting wind. There were fresh 

 markhor tracks all over the place, but the weather shut us 



