A GOOD STALK 113 



order not to disturb them, and, making a long 

 detour, continued up the main valley, where we soon 

 caught sight of another lot of ewes, who this time 

 had evidently got our wind, for they suddenly all 

 lifted up their heads and galloped away, disappear- 

 ing over a boulder. As I watched them make off 

 my Zeiss distinctly spotted a fair ram among them. 

 1 thought they might not go far, as they could not 

 have actually seen us, and decided to wait till they 

 settled down again. Taba seemed to share my 

 opinion, and after a short halt off we started in 

 their direction, following up the narrow ravines be- 

 tween the low rolling hillocks, and carefully choosing 

 the best hiding-places. The wind here blew in our 

 faces, and the rocky pinnacles with small ridges 

 joining them afforded capital stalking, if only the 

 sheep had not shifted to higher slopes. We were 

 cautiously advancing in this manner, like Red-Indians 

 on the war-trail, inspecting every corner of ground 

 below us from every crag we came across on our 

 way, when finally Taba, who had gone on to my 

 right in order to look over an intervening ridge, 

 suddenly took off his cap and beckoned to me to 

 come. So I crept up to where he lay motionless, 

 and peeping over a ledge of rock caught sight of 

 a fine old ram, quietly enjoying his morning siesta 



