BULLET AND SHOT 



white belly which pertains to the latter. I dared: 

 not move, nor attempt to approach him, until the 

 now-desired mist should again curl up <and render 

 an advance possible. 



The ibex, after gazing at the edge of the pre- 

 cipice for a time, came forward a few yards and lay 

 down under a rock. Between my position and his 

 own was a drop down about ten feet of rock, with 

 a narrow strip of stunted trees on my left front, and 

 a few scattered rhododendrons directly opposite me. 

 If once I could attain the shelter of that narrow 

 strip, I believed that the ibex lying on the grassy 

 stretch beyond would be mine, but I dared not 

 attempt to negotiate the drop down the rock in 

 front until the mists should obscure me from the 

 game. 



At last the wished - for moment arrived, and 

 leaving the shikarrie to lie flat where he was, I 

 descended the rock, and successfully gained the 

 shelter of the trunk of a rhododendron tree before 

 the mists again cleared off and revealed the ibex, 

 who was then standing up and grazing. Thinking 

 that he was still too far for certainty, I determined 

 to wait till he should go over the edge of the pre- 

 cipice, when, by running up, I hoped to get a shot 

 at close quarters below me. The animal made this 

 move sooner than I expected, but as he went 

 slowly, I did not think that he was alarmed, and 

 waiting only until he disappeared over the edge, I 

 ran up, meeting two monkeys on the top, but the 

 ibex was nowhere to be seen, though I saw below 

 me various forms in which he had been lying, 



272 



