134 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



unbroken, the head must have been a fine one. The 

 skin showed a tiny bullet wound in the groin, which 

 must have been the fatal shot. 



The smaller ibex was not retrieved till some days 

 afterwards, when I sent Dingo and another man to look 

 for him. They found him where he had been last seen 

 by us, and only got the head by letting a coolie down 

 from above, by means of a rope, to the ledge on which 

 he was lying. The horns measured but 30J inches. 



The following day, the 3rd of May, we went up the 

 nala and saw two herds of ibex, but the stalk in each case 

 proved a failure owing to the wind. There were no really 

 good heads, however, so I did not mind. The nala we 

 were in was beautifully wooded with pines and cedars, 

 especially on its western side ; but this, though charm- 

 ing to the eye, made it a bit difficult to find the game. 

 Luckily ibex do not seem to care much for woods. 



On the 4th we went down the nala, and examined 

 some rocks overlooking the Indus, hoping to see markhor, 

 but only females and young males were found. 



On the 5th we were out of bed at 3.30 a.m., and by 

 the light of the moon went up a side glen leading west. 

 The early start had been necessary, because there was 

 a good deal of snow to get over, and we wanted to do it 

 before it got soft. Just about dawn we reached the 

 summit — a precipitous rock hanging over the Indus 

 valley — where we were in hopes of coming across 

 markhor. The sunrise on the extensive snow fields of 

 Nanga Parbat was exceptionally fine, as we watched it 

 from the high peak w^e occupied. But no markhor were 

 to be seen, and the shikari, who had said this place was 



