A MISSING IBEX 



?,72> 



then, leaving Hyde to skin it, went on to the second, 

 which we found quite dead. 



Meanwhile, the other men had failed to discov^er the 

 doe which fell first, so Ali went to help them, while I 

 looked after the skinning and weighing ; by this time 

 rain was falling in torrents, with occasional bursts of hail 

 and sleet as a change. As soon as Hyde joined me 

 with the head of the large buck, I started off to look for 

 the second female ; the track it had made as it rolled 

 down was plain enough, and this we followed till it came 

 to the edge of a precipice. After failing to find a road 

 down we returned to where the second buck had fallen, 

 and found all the men shelterinor under the ledg-e of a 

 rock, where they proposed to spend the night. My 

 clothes were dripping, my teeth chattering, so, catching 

 hold of one of the men^for talking had no effect what- 

 ever — I told him to lead me down to camp. He started 

 off to the place where we had already proved there was no 

 path, so I took the lead myself, struck off down the hill- 

 side, and in an hour found a track which led us round 

 the hills and up to camp, where we arrived at 7.30. 

 The final climb up-hill with an icy wind blowing in our 

 faces tried me very much, after the month spent in the 

 steaming Soudan ; however, some hot soup and a roaring 

 fire soon revived me, though I burnt the foot off one 

 sock without feeling any warmth in my toes. 



Early next morning the men arrived safely, with the 

 three ibex-heads ; they had wisely moved down to one 

 of the caves used as sheep-pens, and there spent the 

 night. After photographing the heads, I started off to 

 look for the second female, but although I searched the 



