Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 



Our ride was a long one, as we had to avoid a 

 rather nasty ford, and had not gone more than 

 an hour from camp when Khudai, looking over a 

 bank, pointed out a couple of roebuck lying asleep 

 on a little knoll directly below me. As we were 

 still a long way from the ibex, I took a shot at the 

 larger of the two, the only result being that his 

 head sunk to the moss, while a quick second barrel 

 accounted for the second. I felt that this was 

 rather a good beginning. Covering them with a 

 great coat to keep off vultures, we kept on until 

 we could see the ibex among the rocks on the other 

 side of a great basin. Here we left the horses out 

 of sight and placed the man where he could signal 

 if the herd moved. The climb up the sliding shale 

 was hard work, the last couple of hundred yards 

 being through deep soft snow; but at last we 

 reached the top and began, our stalk on the ibex 

 lying among the broken rocks far below us. Very 

 carefully we made our way down, an occasional 

 look with the glass showing the man where we had 

 left him. This side of the mountain was broken 

 by small cliffs about twenty feet high, but quite as 

 effectual as if they were much higher. At last our 

 descent was blocked by a small ibex, so back we 

 had to climb, almost to the top and down another 

 chimney. Carefully looking over the rocks, we 



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