AN EXCITING STALK. 235 



stalk was not a long one, for we were above them when 

 we saw them, and within an hour of the time when I 

 started after them I had secured a right-and-left — two 

 fine heads of 46 and 49 inches respectively. 



A day or two later I moved farther up the Oriyaas 

 stream. All along the river-banks that curious little 

 rodent the marmot swarmed, sitting bolt upright over 

 his hole, uttering his weird, shrill little note, and dis- 

 appearing like a jack-in-the-box whenever we approached 

 too close. Once Nurah made out the tracks of a big 

 wapiti, and went nearly mad with excitement until I 

 told him he could go and try his luck after it. He 

 went off towards dusk and spent the rest of the night 

 in the gloomy depths of the forest, but no success 

 rewarded his efforts. 



A day or two after this I had a most exciting stalk 

 in wild rocky ground, where, in a long past geologic 

 era, some convulsive spasm of nature had torn great 

 rents and thrown up odd excrescences. Grass grew 

 here where it could, and trees and bushes seemed to 

 find foothold in the rock itself, and ibex revelled to the 

 utmost in projecting crags and sheltered hollows. They 

 were there on this occasion, a dozen beauties, and off 

 we went to circumvent them. The climb was steep, as 

 is generally the case when a big ibex is at the other 

 end of it, and an hour had passed before we found our- 

 selves in a position to crawl up for a shot ; but so far 

 all was well, for they had not moved from the spot 

 where we had first caught sight of them. 



I crawled flat to the top of a little ridge, and straight 

 below me, at a distance which I judged to be 200 yards, 

 stood a fine beast, while others were lying down or 

 cropping grass close by. I held my breath, pressed the 

 butt hard against my shoulder, and then fired. The 

 usual confusion which follows a shot ensued. Ibex 



