242 A RACE FOR A SHOT. 



First we sighted two rinds, which were not worth the risk 

 of disturbing the ground by firing at, even could we have 

 stalked them successfully, or had cared to do so. Three or 

 four fairly large bucks were also made out among the crags 

 on an opposite hill-face, but they were evidently not the big 

 fellows that were " wanted " ; and a deep precipitous-sided 

 valley that lay between us and them, with a roaring linn at 

 the bottom of it, precluded any possibility of our getting near 

 them that evening. We therefore began descending the ridge 

 we had come up, in the hope of finding them again at some 

 future time. 



Hardly have we gone a couple of hundred yards when, 

 hark ! something has detached a stone up on the steep hill- 

 side to our left, and we have barely time to crouch down 

 among the rocks on the ridge ere a hoary old buck, with a 

 huge pair of cork-screws on his head, shows himself for a 

 second or two, as he crosses a bare spot among a lot of birch 

 bushes some three hundred yards distant. Five or six others 

 of equal size follow closely in his wake. These must certainly 

 be the beasts whose heifer-like tracks we saw below, and they 

 are evidently on their way down to feed. 



The ridge is so craggy and steep that it will take all we 

 can do to clamber down and intercept them before they get 

 near our bivouac, where they must certainly detect the men 

 left there, for the beasts are making straight downwards in 

 that direction. 



Off we start under cover of the ridge as fast as the ground 

 will allow of, passing the rifles from hand to hand down the 

 more precipitous spots, and every now and then peering over 

 at the markhor, upon which we do not appear to gain an 

 inch, but if anything lose distance. Presently we reach a bit 

 of more practicable ground, where we are able to travel faster, 

 and when we again reconnoitre the animals, we find we have 

 succeeded in getting a little ahead of them. There is no time 

 to lose, however for, as far as I can judge from the direction 



