46 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



was necessary and pulled the trigger. There came 

 no answering thud, and I was as disgusted as I 

 was surprised to see him going off untouched. 



Now, though I use a magazine rifle, I make a 

 practice of putting no more than two or three 

 cartridges in, as I am among those that hold that 

 if you do not get your beast in this number of 

 shots, you should accept your failure and not 

 attempt to mend matters by firing more shots 

 at a running beast that, ex hypothesi, are more 

 difficult than those you have already missed. By 

 firing wild shots you run the risk of maiming your 

 beast or of killing or wounding others with him. 

 To my mind the best possible clause in game laws 

 would be the absolute prohibition of magazine 

 rifles. 



It will be thought that this sentiment little 

 agrees with what follows. I had for some reason 

 on this occasion filled my magazine. I missed the 

 ibex again as he was galloping over the level 

 towards a steep rocky ridge. He reached it and 

 began going up with springs and halts. It was 

 too steep for him to go fast. He was still not 

 more than 120 yards off, but the sun was setting 

 behind the ridge in a direct line, which made my 

 Lyman sight blaze so that it was quite useless. I 

 put it down and raised the leaf sight. This was 

 little better, as the blinding glitter off the barrel 



