Across the Roof of the World. 



feet, whilst the left was broken and serrated, with pinnacles of 

 rock higher up, admirable ground for burhel but scarcely so 

 congenial for man, especially when encumbered with a rifle. The 

 herd was quietly grazing on the right bank some two hundred 

 yards further down stream and numbered about forty head, but 

 of these only ten or a dozen were rams. 



By keeping well over to the left bank I was enabled to take 

 full advantage of the configuration of the ground, which had a 

 tendency to rise slightly to a point lower down the stream whence 

 it dropped abruptly to the water's edge again. It was therefore 

 essential to coast along under cover of this, and by dint of much 

 crawling to gain the topmost point whence the burhel would afford 

 a fairly easy shot. Fortunately the wind was favourable, blowing 

 up the nullah as is usual in the early part of the morning. By 

 the time I was halfway along the slope the caravan hove in sight, 

 a matter of four hundred yards up the ravine, but Giyani, noticing 

 my movements and divining from the manner I was hugging 

 the ground and pursuing a snake-like advance that something 

 was in the wind, halted the yaks and men under the lee of the 

 rocks. When I reached the crest and peeped over no burhel 

 were visible, so it was obvious they had taken alarm and made 

 off. I sent Nadir forward to reconnoitre and presently he looked 

 back, beckoning me to follow. Now, the ravine here was 

 of a winding nature, not permitting of a view in a direct line 

 for more than a hundred yards. Round the corner of the 

 next turn the burhel were spotted, making their way up 

 amongst the broken rocks on our side of the stream, and 

 evidently bent on migrating to less dangerous quarters. The 

 ground ran up from the river bank in a succession of ridges at 

 right angles to the ravine, with little hollows in between. There 

 was a chance that if I kept near the crest of one of these ridges 

 and worked gradually up I might get a shot. It was hard going 

 as the slopes were steep and rocky, affording scarcely any foot- 

 hold, what there was being mostly loose rocks, which constantly 

 became displaced and clattered down with a noise that threatened 



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