xviii THE LAST ANTELOPE 323 



found, on coming in sight of the spot where we had 

 left the bucks, that they had moved on and were grazing. 

 After a long crawl on my stomach I saw the three 

 apparently about 100 yards off So I sat up, and while 

 they stood looking at me, took aim at one and fired. As 

 usual, I forgot how high the rifle throws for short ranges, 

 and the bullet went over the animal's back. All three 

 bolted across the glen, and I got in a few shots at the 

 leading buck as they went. The last of these dropped 

 him, and the other two escaped. 



I was glad to have got even one, though, from the place 

 where I was when I sat up to fire, it was possible to 

 have killed all three. The dead buck was hit on the 

 point of the shoulder, the bullet coming out near the 

 opposite hip, making as usual a bad wound. He was 

 lying 209 paces — about 180 yards — from where I had 

 fired. The horns measured 21". 



His head was cut off and brought on, and we then 

 went up the main nala to look for the wild yak. But 

 there were no signs of them, and on examining the 

 ground where we thought we had seen them, there were 

 no marks. Accordingly, as large numbers of kyang 

 were about, and this valley is not supposed to hold wild 

 yak, we came to the conclusion we had been mistaken, 

 and that what we had supposed might be yak were in 

 reality wild asses. So we turned homeward. 



The Ovis ammoji I had fired at was tracked up and 

 found lying dead, about 100 yards from where we had 

 seen him disappear. The horn was only 23I- inches, I 

 regret to say, so I would not take it home, and felt very 

 sorry I had not acted on my own judgment and let the 



