1 86 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



visible. He was about 250 or 300 yards off, and a good 

 bit above us, as he lay on one of the rocks of a small 

 hill formed of bie boulders. 



The shikari said, "Come on as if nothing was seen," 

 and went on quietly till out of sight of the leopard, when 

 we all set off top speed to the village. When we got 

 there, we learned that this leopard had killed a bullock 

 two days before close to the village, had eaten a little the 

 previous night, and had come down to the kill again about 

 dawn, when the village boys had chased it away with 

 stones. This was told us as we took off our boots and 

 chaplis preparatory to a stalk, the shikari going in his 

 bare feet and I in my socks. We crept up amongst the 

 rocks stealthily, but the shikari was in too much of a 

 hurry, and I fear we were not as noiseless as if we 

 had gone more slowly ; for when we came in sight of the 

 rock he had been seen on, the animal was no longer 

 visible. He must have heard us and jumped silently 

 down, and in that wilderness of rocks pursuit was of 

 course hopeless. 



So we went back to the village, and then went to the 

 kill. Very little had been eaten, and from what the boys 

 said of the animal's boldness, it seemed to me likely that 

 it might come out some time during the day. The kill 

 was lying at the edge of a small stream, the opposite side 

 of which was a fairly high grassy bank. There I saw a 

 spot — about 50 yards from the kill — w^here it struck me I 

 could wait behind a screen ; so I had some pine boughs 

 cut down and a screen erected and took my seat, giving 

 orders that as soon as my things came up, the camp was to 

 be pitched in the first convenient spot beyond the village. 



