A CURIOUS INCIDENT. 355 



down, got my elbows well planted on the ground, and the 

 rifle levelled for a steady shot. Sure enough, they pulled up at 

 about a hundred yards. There was little to choose between 

 them, so I took the one that offered the better mark, and 

 dropped him on the spot. The other trotted on some twenty 

 yards, and then turned to look back for his companion. I 

 had only his chest to aim at, but fortune again favoured me, 

 for he too went down, never to rise again. Great was the 

 astonishment of my Tartar companions when, on coming up, 

 instead of finding, as they expected, that I had shot the doe, 

 or perhaps missed her, I showed them a dead buck, and still 

 greater was it on my pointing out a second lying within 

 twenty yards of him ; for their surprise was so great at seeing 

 even one dead buck, that they had never thought of looking 

 for another. But where was the doe ? She had vanished, 

 and her having thus been fortuitously the means of my 

 finding two such beautiful bucks, after my forbearance to- 

 wards her in the morning, was really a curious coincidence ; 

 for had I shot at her then, I should never have got them. 

 The Tartars soon shouldered the game, and we bent our steps 

 towards camp rejoicing. Both pairs of horns were just over 

 a foot long. 



The Major got back soon after me. He had found no goa, 

 but had seen two black wolves, which unfortunately he was 

 unable to get a shot at. They must have been two I had 

 made out with the telescope from my side of the valley in 

 the morning, when my attention had been attracted towards 

 them by their dismal howling. During our absence it ap- 

 peared that the camp had been invaded by some of our 

 mounted friends from the pass, at whose unexpected advent, 

 our Indian domestics informed us, the Hanle" yak-drivers 

 seemed much exercised in their minds. 



We now returned to HanM by a different route to the one 

 we had travelled from it. On our way we made a Sunday 

 halt, which our men devoted to marmot-hunting. A few goa 



