A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



above, but on investigation they proved to be 

 mostly females, with no big bucks amongst them. 

 Not long afterwards, however, on the hillside some 

 little way higher up, we saw a sight to make glad 

 the heart of man, or, at any rate, of shooting man. 

 On a boulder-strewn slope, which comes down to 

 the glacier from the precipices above, was what 

 looked at first like a flock of sheep, but which, 

 on examination, proved to be seventeen buck ibex, 

 most of them with very fine heads. As it was now 

 getting towards sunset we thought it best to leave 

 them undisturbed till the morrow, and I hastily 

 despatched a messenger to Babu Lai to tell him 

 to bring up one of the small tents, food, and 

 blankets. He arrived in about two hours time, 

 and we bivouacked under some overhanging rocks 

 lower down the valley and well out of sight of the 

 ibex. I ate some food and lay down half-dressed, 

 and my troubled slumbers were peopled with ibex 

 of gigantic size tumbling down unspeakable preci- 

 pices. By 2.30 A.M. I was on my way towards 

 the slope where we had seen the bucks on the 

 previous evening, as I was determined that I would 

 not miss my chance by not being on the ground 

 before the ibex, which were almost certain to return 

 to it as they had not been disturbed. What a 

 scene met our eyes as we set out ! The moon, 

 which had not yet set, shed a flood of brilliant 

 light over mighty Masherbrum and its glittering 

 glaciers which towered above us ; the crags on our 



68 



