236 A WILD TABLEAU. 



shivering with cold, and I am just about to suggest the pro- 

 priety of returning to a spot where we intended passing the 

 night, when the rattle of a falling stone, detached somewhere 

 far up in the mist, falls faintly upon our ears. 



" They're coming down now," whispers Gamoo, followed by 

 a suggestion that we should get more under cover of the ridge 

 of the spur on which we have posted ourselves. Anxiously 

 we crouch there, straining our ears to catch the slightest 

 sound ; but nothing more is heard save the soft patter of fall- 

 ing drops, the echoing claps of thunder, and the sough of the 

 wind among the swaying pine-branches, until I begin to think 

 the falling stone must have been loosened by the rain. But 

 listen ! again the rattle of loose stones, and this time much 

 nearer. Oh for a break in the dense mist that is scudding 

 past, to give us a sight of the markhor, which, there is now no 

 doubt, are on their way down to where they fed in the morn- 

 ing ! At last fortune seems to be going to favour us. for the 

 rain ceases, and the pall of cloud is gradually lifting, as rock 

 and tree above begin to loom indistinctly through the flying 

 vapour. 



" Look ! " again whispers Gamoo, his voice trembling with 

 excitement, as he points in the direction of several tall pine- 

 trees on a ridge some distance from and considerably higher 

 than the spur that conceals us. About a couple of hundred 

 yards beyond two of their massive stems which form, as it 

 were, a kind of huge rustic framing such a truly wild tableau 

 as seldom is witnessed becomes gradually disclosed to view. 

 The undefined form of a stately markhor is emerging like a 

 spectre from the mist, slowly wending his way downward. 

 He is immediately followed by another, and yet another, equal 

 in size to himself, whilst a string of smaller animals bring up 

 the rear. As the leader reaches a broad ledge jutting out 

 under a dark beetling crag, he wheels suddenly round and 

 butts at one of his big followers, which, with lowered head, is 

 ready to receive him. After a tilt or two, the leading buck 



