388 CHUCKOR IN THE WAY. 



followed them, performing the most eccentric gambols in their 

 descent. These were soon joined by three other old fellows 

 coming from a different direction. At last there were none 

 left in sight but the two tehriiy, which still kept their posi- 

 tions like sentinels on the rocks above. We waited patiently 

 for them to move down, until it grew so late that, at the risk 

 of their detecting us, we commenced crawling cautiously on 

 towards the hollow. We had almost reached a spot which 

 commanded it, when up got a chuckor partridge in front of 

 us. This was bad enough, but it was much worse when, a 

 little farther on, the rest of the covey rose with a whirr ! and 

 flew right over the hollow. On carefully raising my head to 

 reconnoitre, I could see at a glance that the tahr had taken 

 alarm and were on the alert. One old buck stood within 

 easy range, gazing straight towards me ; but before I could 

 cover him, he was galloping away with the rest of the herd 

 down the hollow. I let drive at a big black fellow that was 

 leading, and thought I had hit him, though he still continued 

 his course. We followed up at once, and soon came on our 

 friend as he lay, looking very sick, behind a rock. Another 

 shot sent him off again into some precipitous ground, where 

 we could see him standing rather groggily on a ledge ; but it 

 had now grown too dark to follow him farther that evening. 

 Fortunately there was a bright moon to light us back to our 

 camp, which was about two miles off, and some of the footing 

 was not of the best. 



That night I witnessed from our camp a remarkably beauti- 

 ful moonlight effect. As the moon sank towards the irregular 

 ridge of the summit of Trisool, 1 rising 22,300 feet high, away 

 across the misty depths of the Doulee valley far below, the 

 immense snow -fields that lay along its upper slopes glistened 



1 So called by the natives from its irregular summit being supposed to 

 resemble a "trisool" or trident, which is by Hindoos regarded as symbolical 

 of their divine triad Brahma, the creator ; Vishnu, the preserver ; Siva, the 

 destroyer. 



