1 62 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



Others fair, and as the wind was favourable and the goats 

 were in a good position, we decided to attempt the stalk. 



So, crossing the gravel boundary, and going over a 

 small ridge, we dropped into a hollow full of birches, 

 and, keeping along its bottom, went down its length 

 sheltered by the trees. The ibex were grazing about on 

 the grassy slope and quite unconscious of danger as we 

 crept forward. The slope they were on was a gentle 

 one, and immediately above a precipice, so when we got 

 fairly near we were underneath and out of sight. Creep- 

 ing out of the hollow, we went up to a large rock which 

 stood out some 20 or 30 feet high above the mountain- 

 side, and here we left Chand with the breakfast things, 

 while Abdulla, a local coolie, and I, went on. 



The climb was over rocks and sand, and was pretty 

 steep, and later on we had a nasty place to negotiate. 

 Along the side of the glacier, next the grassy slope, a 

 hollow had been formed, and as the sun melted the ice, 

 a stream of water came down it. Also at frequent inter- 

 vals boulders and rocks, released from the ice, came 

 tearing down, and as the slope was steep they went at a 

 great pace. The floor of the shoot thus formed was all 

 slushy and slippery with the melting ice and the dc^dris 

 which the glacier was dropping, and we halted for some 

 time on the edge, watching the rocks racing down the 

 shoot, and considering if there was any way of getting 

 to the ibex without crossing it. Immediately above us, 

 to the left, the thick ice of the glacier foot shone out 

 under the snow, and the continuous drip warned us that 

 blocks of it might at any moment give way and sweep 

 us down. To the right the shoot ended in a clear drop 



