THE NILGIRI IBEX 



lying down on the other side of a small nullah, 

 only some thirty or thirty-five yards off. Sitting 

 down, to enable me to take a steady shot after the 

 great exertion which I had undergone, I fired, and 

 the buck rolled over and over down below. To so 

 nasty a place had he now fallen, that neither of our 

 two shikarries could manage the descent, but, as 

 good luck would have it, one of our coolies, who 

 was an expert cragsman, succeeded in getting down, 

 and in bringing up to us in turn, first the head, 

 and then the skin of my coveted prize which was 

 just beginning to be entitled to the honorific title 

 of "saddle-back," since light hairs were com- 

 mencing to show over the dark ground-colour of 

 his loins. All this had occupied a considerable 

 time, and the skinning of the slain appeared to 

 me sitting, very ill at ease, on very little of the 

 steep hillside to be an interminable operation, but 

 at last I started to make the ascent. It would, I 

 suppose, have been easy enough work to anyone 

 possessed of a good head for, and accustomed to 

 climbing ; but to me, with my slippery, smooth- 

 soled boots, it was difficult and "jumpy" enough 

 work in places, and I needed constant aid from 

 Chinniah. What toil it was ! Every few feet I 

 had to sit down, and the perspiration simply poured 

 from my face, though the temperature was suffi- 

 ciently cool, more especially since a thick mist 

 had come on enveloping everything in its cold, 

 wet blanket. 



At last, quite done up, I reached the top, and 

 flung myself down on the grass, while I sent 



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