Across the Roof of the World. 



■which I did as rapidly and quietly as possible, and let drive with 

 the little '303 I was using that day. The shot caught him 

 behind the shoulders, but he went some little distance before 

 finally toppling over. The horns measured 55 inches, with a 

 spread of 3i|- inches between the tips, a really magnificent head, 

 and a fitting termination to my ibex shoot in the Thian Shan. 



When the head was brought into camp I realised what a 

 trophy I had bagged, almost a world's record. The keenest joy 

 the hunter can experience was mine, and I looked upon all the 

 toil and trouble inseparable from ibex shooting as a pleasure, 

 and the reward it was my good luck to gain amply compensated 

 for the hardships and privations endured since leaving India. 



Of the ibex I had bagged the six best measured as follows : — 

 55. 538» 5i2» 481, 47t, 4-7 k inches, the measurement of the record 

 head, as given in a standard work on big game, being 571 inches. 



The herd had gone off headlong into the next nullah, so I 

 determined to try this ground the following day, but did not set 

 out till noon, as we were busy cleaning the mask of the big head 

 and taking it easy after our strenuous exertions of the past few 

 days. We followed straight up the ravine I was then camped 

 in to near the upper end where it divided, one branch con- 

 tinuing eastward and the other trending away to the north. It 

 was in this latter ravine we found the herd feeding on the upper 

 slopes and the three remaining big ibex with them. 



It was a matter of great difficulty getting near enough for 

 practical purposes, although the terrain did admit of it, being much 

 broken with numerous little side watercourses, coming down 

 amongst which one could proceed more or less under cover. On 

 this occasion, however, Numgoon did not display his wonted 

 caution, and they, sighting him, started to trek, part of the herd 

 making for the opposite side of the ravine over some large patches 

 of snow, thence up through the rocks and across the intervening 

 range into the nullah beyond. The big bucks took a contrary 

 course and moved off above the ground on which we had first 

 seen them. It was no good, so I had to return empty-handed, 



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