442 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



nothing an express will do which the carbine will not do, 

 and many things that can be done by the carbine which 

 would be impossible with the express. The carbine, 

 with a sporting bullet, will hit as hard as any express, 

 has a flatter trajectory, and is accurate at far longer 

 ranges. In eight months' shooting I only lost two 

 animals which had been hit with the Lee-Metford. 

 One was the uryal, wounded on the leg, and the other the 

 Ovis amnion, scratched by a splinter of a bullet. More 

 than one animal fell to a single shot, and the rifle 

 was found enough for a full-grown bull yak. The 

 advantages of the flat trajectory cannot be overrated in 

 hill shooting, where judging distance is such a serious 

 difficulty. It is hard enough to estimate correctly a 

 distance on the flat, but to do it with a ravine between 

 the shooter and his game requires long practice. The 

 advantage, therefore, of a weapon with which an error 

 of a hundred yards is comparatively unimportant is very 

 great indeed. 



But it is in its accuracy at long ranges that the carbine 

 is most markedly superior to the express. The hollow 

 bullet cannot be depended on beyond 200 yards, and 

 even at that range the shooting of most express rifles 

 is erratic. But the Lee-Metford is almost as true at 

 500 yards as at 200. No animal standing inside of 500 

 yards from the rifle is really safe, and as yet few animals, 

 if any, are aware of the fact. An ibex will run off to 300 

 yards or so, and then turn and calmly watch his pursuer. 

 He would be practically safe from an express, but is in 

 almost as much danger there from the Lee-Metford as if 

 he had been only 200 yards off. My shikaris at first 



