SPORT IN THE TEKKES : IBEX 99 



of preliminary uphill work ; but when we arrived 

 on what should have been the scene of action, the 

 ibex were gone. Presently I saw a female on the 

 edge of a narrow valley, into which she disappeared, 

 about 400 yards away. Now, if I had known the 

 ground well, I could easily have got a shot by run- 

 ning down, as the valley was very deep, though 

 narrow ; but this I did not know, so went slowly, 

 and the herd, concealed hitherto, all walked up the 

 other side, just too far off for a shot. They did not go 

 far, but eventually lay down in a position where they 

 were quite unassailable, as the cliff stopped any near 

 approach from above and one side, while the wind 

 and the open ground did the same in other directions ; 

 so I began to look about for more, and soon made 

 out two other herds. One of these only consisted 

 of some thirty beasts or so, but some of the bucks 

 were very big ; in fact, I was pretty sure that two of 

 them had horns well over 50 inches. The only 

 possible way of stalking them involved a long climb 

 up, and a very considerable devour ; so, as the 

 Kalmak was rather elderly, with bad eyesight, and 

 not very good on his feet, I decided to spare him the 

 walk and leave him behind, only taking my own 

 man with me. This was a mistake as it turned out, 

 but I did not then know how big a fool the man 

 was ; so after carefully impressing upon him on no 

 account to move until we returned, no matter how 

 long we might be gone, we started. 



