86 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



and free midst the grandest, noblest works of an 

 Almighty Being ; to roam alone with a dear old friend 

 in the shape of a trusty rifle, letting one's thoughts 

 roam also amongst lands of their own ; no sound heard 

 but the murmuring of the mountain brooks, the scream 

 of the black eagle, or the wild whistle of the ibex, as 

 amidst the curling mist on some dark jutting crag he 

 keeps his watchful vigil. A man who can live in such 

 scenes as these, and not feel his whole nature ennobled 

 for the time, must be indeed made of some adamantine 

 substance. 



I intend in this to give you the account of a day's 

 ibex-stalking that occurred during my last expedition. 

 It will, I fancy, interest you, and give you some notion 

 of the difficulties and trials consequent to the grandest 

 sport in Asia. It will also show that to bag an ibex 

 is not the easy thing a person not understanding these 

 things might be led to imagine. The walking is most 

 fearfully trying to the very strongest and determined 

 sportsmen. This, of course, renders a man, unless in 

 superb condition, a little shaky and unsteady, especially 

 when you also consider that an ibex is the most wary 

 and watchful animal in the world ; his gifts of scent, 

 sight, and hearing, even to an old deer -stalker like 

 myself, are obstacles almost insurmountable. Nothing 

 but indefatigable patience, and firm, unswerving per- 

 severance, will ever enable a man to lay his hands on 

 the wild, battered head of an old gray ibex. When 

 disturbed, ibex will travel off to other grounds, some- 

 times going for seven days and seven nights without 

 hardly stopping pretty good in even these locomotive 

 days. I mention these facts just to show what a 

 weight depends upon one when often, after perhaps a 

 most tedious stalk, you find yourself breathless, cut, 

 reeking hot, and excited, within shot of a wild old 



