THE NILGIRI IBEX 



down which he had been cautiously creeping, and, 

 up till this unlooked-for disaster occurred, with 

 perfect success so far as being undetected by the 

 game was concerned. We, not having seen the 

 ibex, and ignorant of the cruel disappointment 

 which we had caused, took up a position to watch 

 for sambur, but saw none, and returned to camp. 

 I was greatly disgusted and vexed with myself 

 when I learnt the mischief of which I had been 

 the unwitting cause, and D.'s good temper, in 

 giving vent to not even so much as one "cursory" 

 remark over so grievous a contretemps, struck me 

 as beyond all praise. 



If our luck with ibex had been bad, it had in 

 the case of sambur been but little better. We had 

 seen plenty of hinds and fawns, and some brockets, 

 but the big stags were almost invisible, apparently 

 coming out to feed too late at night, and retiring 

 to cover too early in the morning, to give us any 

 opportunity of stalking them. I had, however, 

 seen two really good stags, at one of which I had 

 fired two long shots without effect. We had tried 

 everything had shifted our camp from Banghy 

 Tappal to a place further on, and again moved back 

 to the former ; we had even so far condescended, 

 and lowered ourselves, as to attempt two days' 

 beating, but, on the evening of our last day but 

 one, our total bag consisted of one stag and two 

 ibex. 



The next day our last chance of shooting we 

 decided to send our camp to Avalanche on the 

 return journey to Ootacamund, and, going together, 



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