i64 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



running down a snow slope to my left. I fired several 

 shots at him as he ran by, but though he must have 

 passed within 50 yards I seemed to miss him every 

 time. He came down the glacier and bolted across it, 

 when, just as he was at the middle of it, and some 1 50 

 yards off, a bullet caught him on the off hind -leg, and 

 after standing still a minute he lay down. 



Meantime the third animal had disappeared, and we 

 went to that first shot. To my great regret the horns were 

 only 25 inches, and as the second seemed a still smaller 

 beast, I felt very sorry indeed. I cannot tell how we came 

 to make so bad an estimate, for, of course, if we had sup- 

 posed they were so small, we should never have gone 

 after the herd. The probability is that the third animal, 

 which got away, had the best horns, and that it was his 

 we had thought decently good when we started. When 

 I caught sight of the beast first shot from the bank, he 

 was facing me, and of course I could not judge of his 

 horns, and the next shot was fired in a hurry and as the 

 animals were bolting. The ibex was stone dead, the 

 bullet having caught him where neck and shoulder join. 

 It had not passed through. 



After taking the head off, we left the coolie to skin 

 him, and went over the glacier to the second animal. 

 His horns were only 23^ inches, and I was greatly 

 disgusted at the morning's work. He also was lying 

 dead when we reached him, and at the edge of a crevasse 

 down which if he had slipped we should never have seen 

 him again. He had evidently been hit by the second 

 shot I fired, and this was what must have made him come 

 down towards me, instead of going up with his companion. 



