26o THE UPPER BASPA 



the animals could be found, so we went up farther, crossing 

 the steep sides of two more ravines. At last the barhal 

 were sighted on a slope above us, grazing along towards 

 the snow. We crept along until we came to a rocky 

 ridce, beyond which we could not go without instant 

 discovery. A ravine full of snow lay between us and the 

 game — distance about two hundred yards. At first only 

 ewes were sighted ; they were evidently alarmed, for they 

 were moving off in their usual leisurely way. Suddenly 

 Anparh, the shikari, called out, " Mdnda, sdhih, menda" 

 (a ram, sir, a ram), and I spotted him following the five 

 ewes. He was going up very slowly, and whenever he 

 stopped he had his tail towards me — he did not seem to 

 understand the alarm of the females. Something must have 

 frightened them, but evidently they had not seen us yet. 

 At last the ram stood for a moment showing his left side. 

 I fired and missed. He then turned, went up some dis- 

 tance, and stood again, giving me a slanting shot at his 

 right shoulder. This time I hit him in the small ribs, the 

 bullet passing up towards his neck. He walked up a few 

 yards and then rolled down dead. The distance could not 

 have been less than 250 yards. The sun was facing me, 

 and I could hardly see the foresight through the glare, so 

 had little hope of making a good shot ; but I had a rest to 

 fire from, and the Henry Express shot up to the mark. 

 Yakiib, who had accompanied me, was disappointed about 

 the halal; he shook his head as he scanned the ground 

 between himself and the dead game, and let the meat go 

 with a sigh of regret. The coolie went across and rolled 

 the ram down to the snow, and then dragged it along to us. 

 It was skinned and cut up on the snow. Anparh and his 

 companion did not waste a morsel ; he first cut the tes- 

 ticles off and put them carefully by in his waistband ; he 

 even made an attempt to collect the blood in the emptied 



