The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
had half skinned the second one when I had to 
stop owing to its becoming too dark to see 
properly. Shanghai helped me, therefore, to 
get this second ram into the valley, which was 
not more than eighty yards away. Now, there 
is a sort of green, slimy moss that grows on these 
mountains which when trodden on, especially 
when wearing mocassins, is as slippery as 1ce— 
slippery is hardly the word to convey my 
meaning, for the moss makes the ground more 
of a greasy or soapy nature; anyhow, it was 
slippery enough in the dark to give me a bad 
toss, and in falling I had the misfortune to hit 
the cap of my left knee on a sharp point of rock. 
This hurt most frightfully, and it was with the | 
greatest difficulty that I managed with Shang- 
hai’s help to crawl the short distance back to 
camp. I got there at last, and promptly made 
some bandages of an old flour sack, which I tore 
up and sewed together. My knee had now 
swollen considerably. Hunter bathed the place 
with hot water, and then I made a saturated 
solution of salt and water, which I applied to 
the bandages. Shanghai and Elia went out and 
brought in the two sheepskins and some of the 
meat, the rest following next morning. I was 
now hors de combat for two days. Had I attempted 
to walk I should probably have been laid up for 
weeks with inflammation of the knee-joint—I 
therefore had to endure it. Hunter went out 
258 
