TAHR AND GOORAL IN SIGHT. 81 



and both were within range for a longish shot. Singling 

 out the tahr that looked the best, I waited until he was in 

 a good position for taking him. As the report of the rifle 

 rang out, his companions instantly made off, and scaling the 

 impassable-looking rocks above them with the most marvel- 

 lous agility, disappeared over the ridge on the opposite side 

 of the hollow, without stopping to give a second chance. 

 The one I had shot at seemed so badly hit, as he went 

 hobbling away after them, that, feeling sure of eventually 

 getting him, I at once turned my attention to the gooral. 

 They looked very much perplexed, but did not move off 

 until I had emptied my second barrel at one of them as he 

 stood hissing out his note of alarm. 



" He's hit too ! " exclaimed the shikaree with great glee, 

 as the animal contrived with difficulty to follow the rest of 

 the herd over the ridge, some distance lower down than 

 where the tahr had crossed it. Scrambling down the side 

 of the promontory, we almost ran along the sloping terrace 

 the animals had been on. In cold blood I should most 

 probably have hesitated to cross it at all, for the incline 

 was so sharp that a slip would have been fatal, and it was 

 not until we were on it that I could see the profound depth 

 of the abyss below. 



The shikaree now climbed after the tahr, whilst Kurbeer 

 and I took up the track of the wounded gooral. The 

 ground, which would at any time have been bad, was now 

 rendered frightfully dangerous by being very wet and 

 slippery from the rain which was still falling. We had 

 missed the track of the gooral, and I was carefully going 

 along the brink of a craggy precipice, to which I thought 

 the wounded animal might have betaken himself, with my 

 gun ready to finish him with a buckshot-cartridge, should 

 I catch sight of him among the rocky ledges below. Kur- 

 beer was some distance higher up, on a very steep incline 

 of short grass rising immediately above me, searching for 

 the lost track. Suddenly I heard a scuffling sound above. 



F 



