DEER 



273 



to locate accurately in this way, for they often move- 

 quickly between the roars, which resemble the bellow 

 of a bull ascending to the falsetto. 



It is usual at this time of year to pitch your camp 

 near their run, which is known to the local shikari, 

 and there you take up a position morning and evening, 

 concealed in birch scrub and watching for the stag 

 which may come, but it is very slow work, and the 

 beasts are not numerous. If you hear one call, you 

 naturally go for the sound as quickly as you can, 

 but this, again, is uncertain work ; and even if 

 you strike a trail, the stag will probably go faster 

 than you can, for the Cashmiri is not like a Red 

 Indian, and cannot run a trail except on snow. 

 However, it is just as well that they are difficult 

 to overtake, for otherwise they would soon be exter- 

 minated. There is always the chance of coming 

 across a leopard when hunting barasingh, and, of 

 course, bears in plenty, but even they are thinned 

 down a good deal. 



I was hunting in a valley near Bundepore one 

 spring, and from the top of a ridge which commanded 

 some open grassy nullahs I made out with binoculars 

 some object that I could not quite identify. My 

 shikari was a little way back spying another nullah 

 with my long-view telescope. When he joined me I 

 pointed, and he laid on the telescope. He turned 

 round beaming with satisfaction, " Two leopards 

 eating a dead carcass," he said. Off we went best 

 pace to circumvent them. We got as near as we 

 could under cover, but they were in an open grassy 



