AFTER IBEX IN JOURA 301 



ferred to by Professor Knotek, but the other was a 

 shootable beast. 



Dimitrl, in pantomime, suggested a circuit and an 

 approach up one of two or three detached aiguilles 

 of rock in front of us. I accepted his suggestion, not 

 without rather a dismal foreboding of what was to 

 follow : and I was rio-ht. 



At first the way lay over a succession of moraines, 

 consisting mostly of enormous blocks ; but then we 

 had to tackle the sheer rock. I may give some idea 

 of what it was by saying that twice I climbed trees, 

 and swung myself out of their upper branches on to 

 the ledges above, in preference to following my guide. 

 Imagine my disgust at finding, when we finally 

 emerged in a saddle between two points of rock, that 

 we were still a fair rifle-shot from the bottom of the 

 clifP, and the goats were four or fiYe hundred feet 

 above us. Dimitri signed that the shot should be 

 taken, as it would drive the goats downwards ; so 

 I put up the last sight and let drive. It had not 

 the desired efiect, however, and the bucks soon came 

 to a stand again, looking downwards to see where the 

 danger lay. I fired once more, and at the shot they 

 went on upwards ; the best one, at which I had 

 aimed, very awkwardly, but this I attributed to the 

 bad ground. Indeed, from below the cliffs looked 

 almost absolutely sheer. 



As we went home through the still evening to 

 camp, the lad drew my attention to a distant sound 

 — the clash of horned heads meeting in conflict. 

 The bucks must have been nearly, if not quite, a 

 mile away ; but the noise echoed clearly amongst 

 the hill-tops. 



On our return to camp (and our interpreter), 



