82 IBEX SHOOTING 



where he could be treated by the local doctor, as I heard 

 there was one there. I started from camp early and went 

 a long distance over the grassy, undulating slopes, just 

 below the top of the ridge, looking for ibex, and saw a 

 couple of small ones, but let them go. At about ten o'clock, 

 when the sun was getting hot, Mirza Khan sighted a flock 

 of large males in a stony ravine, a great distance ahead of 

 us. They had evidently just finished breakfast, and were 

 now making for the rocks above to enjoy their mid-day 

 sleep. We watched them until they walked out of sight, 

 and then followed them up, sighting them again from the 

 ridge they had last crossed. They were on the opposite 

 side of the ravine, about three hundred yards oft", some 

 lying down, some grazing, and a few going up the slope. 

 They had evidently not yet found a comfortable place for 

 their rest. Examining them through the telescope, I saw 

 there were two large fellows with horns between forty and 

 fifty inches ; the rest were a little over thirty. The biggest 

 was also the laziest, and he was lying lowest on the hill- 

 side. When all had crossed over the ridge, the old fellow 

 got up and followed them. Though they were all out of 

 sight, there was no following them straight across the 

 ravine, as three females had appeared some distance above 

 the point where the males had crossed, and were keeping 

 a very sharp look-out in all directions but above. They 

 had chosen their position so well that we should have been 

 discovered instantly if we had put even our heads above 

 the rocks behind which we were concealed. They could 

 not have been more than eight hundred yards away. It 

 was provoking : it obliged us to go back, get a ridge 

 between ourselves and the sharp-eyed females, and then 

 climb straight up to the dividing ridge, turn the flank of 

 the females, go round and below the ridge out of their 

 sight, and then come down again to the place where the 



