A STALK FROM ABOVE 257 



desperately. Further pursuit was naturally useless, 

 so we turned westwards of the pass, and presently 

 spied five rams standing on a patch of snow, half- 

 way up a stony nullah. The wind being shifty, 

 Taba suggested we should wait awhile before choos- 

 ing the direction for the dttour we should have to 

 make. Unluckily, flies and mosquitoes were very 

 tiresome that clay, as we found, and the sheep had 

 evidently retired to the stretch of snow in order 

 to avoid them. I noticed through my glass that one 

 of the five carried a very desirable head, and seeing 

 they would not move, I decided to circumvent them, 

 and come clown upon them from above. It took us 

 two good hours to get well round them, and when, 

 creeping down as cautiously as I could, I reached a 

 protruding ledge of rock, from which I thought I 

 should be within range of them, I could see, on peep- 

 ing over, part of the patch of snow still about 400 

 yards below me. I therefore crawled on all fours, 

 tearing my hands on the sharp edges of stones, till 

 I found myself within about a hundred yards of the 

 place where we had located them. 



At this moment a gust of wind blew down the 

 gully right in our backs, and a second after the five 

 animals came in siorht moving downhill. I im- 

 mediately fired at the best ram as he rushed past 



