BULLET AND SHOT 



feared that he might lose me in the heavy mist, I 

 shortly afterwards sent the other one also to hurry 

 him up. Meanwhile I seated myself on the high 

 top, and when the mists temporarily lifted, carefully 

 examined through my telescope all the ground 

 below and before me. No sambur were visible 

 in fact, it was yet too early in the afternoon to 

 expect to see them out at graze. But what was 

 that animal standing motionless, with all four feet 

 close together, apparently upon the sky-line of a 

 low ridge running at a right angle with the hill 

 upon which I was seated, and extending down 

 towards the precipitous and forest-clad descent to 

 the Ouchterlony valley? I knew that it must be 

 an ibex, though I had never before seen one in the 

 flesh. 



The mists soon rolled over all the hillsides in 

 front of and below me, and obscured the view, and 

 I sat, and (I am afraid very impatiently) awaited the 

 time when they might again remove their unwel- 

 come mantle from the coveted game which had 

 just been viewed. Upon the clouds once more 

 lifting, there stood the ibex, quite motionless, and 

 in the same attitude as before, apparently gazing 

 intently down into the valley where the coffee 

 plantations and the planters' bungalows were 

 clearly visible, and whence I could hear the 

 sound of the factory gongs. 



This alternation of all-obscuring mist and its 

 temporary removal was again repeated at least 

 once, when, after what seemed to me an inter- 

 minable and unreasonable delay, to my great 



270 



