XV THE FIVE OVIS AMMON RAMS 249 



jumped up and ran to a higher point, hoping to get a 

 shot, but it was no use, as they were quite 300 yards 

 away, and going all they knew before I could get my rifle 

 to bear. The herd went right across the main nala, and 

 over a sloping ridge beyond, where they were lost to view. 



I then turned on the Kashmiri and gave it him hot. 

 But for his persistent disobedience of orders, I should 

 have had as good an opportunity of bagging one or two 

 of the herd as I could have wished for. 



The rams being out of sight we started after them, 

 and had a long walk down the southern slopes of the 

 nala, and up the northern till we reached the place where 

 the sheep had disappeared. There being no signs of 

 them anywhere we stopped for breakfast, and at half-past 

 twelve started to track them. 



The Kashmiri wanted to adopt the plan necessary in 

 the case of markhor and ibex, of waiting till evening on 

 the chance of seeing then the animals we were in pursuit 

 of, but I knew that the Ovis ammon does not lie hid 

 during the day, like the goats we had been after in 

 Baltistan, and knowing also that the track was a fresh 

 one, I resolved to follow it. The herd had turned east, 

 we found, and after an hour and a half's tracking, Rupsang 

 detected it grazing quietly about half a mile from us, on 

 the opposite side of a small nala near the Pogmore La. 

 The sheep were so situated that we could not get near 

 them where they were. They were two-thirds of the 

 way up a hillside, which completely commanded the only 

 hollow by which we could, without making a detour of 

 many miles, get to the top of the hill above them. So 

 we resolved to wait, in hopes that they would move on 



