Ibex 57 



seen, we continued along the top of the cliff, 

 working campwards, till the light began to fail 

 and the monstrous shadow of the hill to creep 

 athwart the level plain below. I had given up 

 all hopes of a shot and was lying spying the 

 low ground with a view to the morning's plans, 

 when Eustam, who had been a little way in 

 advance, came back in great excitement. " Two 

 big ibex, white as snow," was his announcement, 

 "horns thus," and he made a sweep with his 

 arms. It appeared they were some way down, 

 out of shot. A fissure here ran a few yards 

 down the cliff, and this we followed till we reached 

 a gravelly, sloping terrace, on which grew two 

 or three wild fig-trees. From this point Eustam 

 hoped to see the ibex below us. I crawled to 

 the edge but could see nothing, nothing, that 

 is, but a cold, gloomy, and most repellent gulf. 

 There was another ledge twenty yards lower 

 down. If we could reach that, more ground 

 would be visible. There was a possible road, 

 but it was not a nice one. Go, however, we 

 must, and that without delay, as the light was 

 fast failing. Suppressing qualms, therefore, I 

 followed the barefooted shepherd and we reached 

 the ledge. It was a matter of three yards or so 

 in breadth and had a steepish slope outwards, 

 but at one point a rock as big as a portmanteau 



