IX GREAT VITALITY OF SOME IBEX 147 



back. Meantime a cartridge from the magazine had been 

 sHpped in, and aiming just above his tail I fired again. 

 Then he started to run — the females had already dis- 

 appeared — and as he was topping the rise I sent a third 

 bullet after him. 



I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw him go 

 out of sight, and concluded I must have missed him. 

 But it was worth following to make sure, so jumping up 

 we ran across the hollow over which I had just fired. Up 

 the next ridge, on which the herd had been a moment 

 before, and over the next hollow, we went as fast as the 

 steep hillside, slippery with melting snow lying over the 

 grass, would let us. This brought us to another ridge, 

 but there were no ibex beyond it. On we ran to a third 

 ridge, and on topping that, saw the buck standing below 

 between a couple of trees and broadside on. Obviously 

 he had been badly hit, or he would not have stayed 

 behind in this way when the females were gone. I was 

 so pumped with the run that it was useless to fire, and I 

 sat down on the top for a minute to recover wind. Then 

 I fired, and saw the earth splash up just beyond where 

 the buck was standing, and thought I must have gone 

 over him. He turned at the shot, and, to my astonish- 

 ment, bolted as if uninjured down the hill towards the 

 hollow filled with snow, from which the more southerly 

 of the two streams mentioned above originated. I sent 

 a fifth bullet after him as he went, and then we raced 

 down the slope as hard as we could go. I don't know 

 how we got down that slope without an accident, going 

 at the pace we did, but somehow it was done, and we 

 reached a green bank that overhung the snow below. 



