VI HABITS OF IBEX AND MARK HO R 8i 



which is available for his leisure hours to a traveller 

 without books. I had hardly any books, and but for 

 the little chess-board many an hour, after dinner, or on 

 a hillside waiting for ibex to move out of some inacces- 

 sible spot, would have hung very heavy on my hands. 



On the morning of the i8th, having engaged a local 

 man called Zaru to act as chota shikari, we left Sarsal, 

 and, crossing by the rope bridge, went up the ridge on the 

 other side of the Indus. On our way we suddenly started 

 a herd of some thirty markhor (all females and young 

 males), who were lying up in a hollow. They were about 

 150 yards off when we came on them, and as they were 

 the first I had seen, I examined them with some curiosity. 

 They looked uncommonly large, and were certainly the 

 finest goats I had ever beheld. About 10 a.m. we 

 halted for the usual mid-day rest — a custom necessitated 

 by the habits of the game we were after. 



Ibex and markhor seem only to move morning and 

 evening. During the day they lie, in cover, or under 

 rocks, or on snow, usually in some inaccessible spot, far up 

 on the ranges amongst which they are found. They go 

 downwards in the evening, for the sake of such grazing 

 as the barren mountains they frequent produce, and which 

 is naturally best at the lower elevations. In the mornings 

 they graze their way upwards again, to the places they 

 occupy during the day. Here, while the others sleep, 

 one or two of the herd carefully watch the hillsides below 

 them, ready to give the alarm at the first appearance of 

 danger. Consequently they cannot be approached from 

 below at all. And from above they are almost equally 

 hard to reach, though for different reasons. Ibex 



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