166 STALK A SURROW. 



heads of the men who were preparing to shoulder it. The 

 mangled remains of the two goorals were soon brought up, 

 when we were surprised to find them much less smashed 

 and torn than might have been expected, owing probably to 

 their having fallen so clear of rocks. 



The rifle that served me so well on this occasion, as well 

 as on many another although seldom, if ever, with such 

 astonishing results is still in my possession : a *450 bore, 

 double, muzzle-loading Whitworth ; and never was bullet 

 thrown from a more trusty weapon. The dear old-fashioned 

 thing, there it stands in the rack before me now as I write, 

 and there it shall remain as a memento, nothing more, of 

 many a happy day passed with it among the fells and forests 

 of the grand old Himalayas. 



In the evening I climbed up to the spot where the com- 

 panion of the first gooral I had killed had disappeared, 

 but found nothing on its tracks to show that it had been 

 wounded. 



After turning in at night, when all else was silent and still, 

 we heard eerie sounds and a weird-like rustling of wings, 

 as if the restless spirits of the haunted mountain were flit- 

 ting through the air. But I soon discovered they proceeded 

 from several nightjars that were flying to and fro close over 

 the camp, having probably been attracted by the moonshine 

 on the white tents. In the uncertain light, I at first took 

 them for woodcocks, which, among the higher ranges, some- 

 times come hovering over the camp-fires after nightfall. 



On the fourth day we shifted our tents a few miles, to a 

 ridge that overlooked the Doon stretching away like a big 

 green map far below. Early in the morning, whilst search- 

 ing for game with my shikaree along a circuitous route 

 towards our new camp, I noticed, away on the sky-line, the 

 dark form of an animal which the glass showed to be a 

 surrow. We waited until it moved out of sight beyond the 

 steep-sloping ridge on which it had been standing, and then 

 made the best of our way there. We were clambering 



