THE WOUNDED TAHK. 87 



called " funk." Perhaps, in this case, the terms are syn- 

 onymous. From constant practice, however, in mountain- 

 climbing, one grows more confident in his feet, and more 

 callous in his nerves. But I have dwelt so long on the 

 danger of the mountain-slope, and the ideas suggested by 

 it, that, at this rate, we shall never reach the ridge. 



At last we arrived at the crest, and found, as we ex- 

 pected, that the northern slopes were, at this height, almost 

 free of wood, except some scattered birches, rhododendron- 

 bushes, and broad patches of juniper; but the ground was 

 in many places covered with snow-fields. Soon, however, 

 our view of it became obscured by blinding snowflakes 

 that now began whirling about us, so we struck down the 

 ridge, which trended towards our old quarters. There was 

 still a chance of starting a musk-deer from among the 

 birch and rhododendron bushes, for their fresh tracks were 

 numerous, but these were soon obliterated by the falling 

 snow, and not an animal did we see. 



Floundering down through the deep snow-beds was tire- 

 some enough, but as descending the spur was much quicker 

 and less laborious work than ascending it, we reached the 

 lower cave much sooner than I expected. On arrival we 

 found most of its occupants in a complete state of prostra- 

 tion, and suffering severely from the effects of having par- 

 taken too freely of tahr-meat. The sky had cleared again, 

 it was still early in the afternoon, and being my last day 

 on the hill, after refreshing the inner man we once more 

 set out. 



We had made for the ground below, in the direction of 

 the place where we had lost the first tahr I had shot at 

 in this vicinity. Kurbeer was following me, carrying my 

 rifle, when suddenly I heard him hurriedly whisper, " There 

 he goes ! and he's surely the tahr you wounded, for he's 

 lame," as a big buck jumped up from behind some rocks 

 close to us, and rattled off. Had I had the rifle in my 

 hand I could have got an easy running shot ; and when I 



