SHEEP AND GOATS 257 



such an angle that each step displaces the stuff, so 

 that half the labour when ascending is lost. There 

 are great glacial moraines and slopes of rock debris, 

 on which you have to pick your way carefully at the 

 risk of broken knees and sprained ankles, whilst now 

 and again a fragment of rock will come hustling 

 down from the crags above, with no small danger to 

 life and limb. 



The morning after my arrival, whilst dressing 

 before daybreak for an early start, Surju came into 

 my tent and said that there was a herd of burhel on 

 the move close to my camp, for, although too dark 

 to see, he could hear the displacement of the stones 

 as they moved along. I swallowed my tea and was 

 soon ready for a start. At break of day we made 

 them out : a good herd of rams moving up the side 

 of the nullah above the camp. When they were 

 out of sight beyond the first spur, I started after 

 them. A stern chase it proved to be, and a long 

 one, but after a couple of hours' hard work we came 

 up to them, not within shot indeed, but in the middle 

 of a corrie where they were grazing on the tufts 

 of grass which grow sparsely between the stones. 

 There was nothing for it but to wait until they 

 moved, but the grass where they were was evidently 

 good, and for over an hour we lay and watched. 

 I made out some very good heads in the herd, and 

 being in no hurry, determined to devote the whole 

 day to them if necessary. At last they began to 

 move up the opposite slope, and one after another 

 gradually disappeared over the sky-line. It was a 



