304 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



all conscience, but even markhorare less heartbreaking to deal 

 with than shapoo. 



The writer once met a real typical shapoo, a true son of 

 Belial. The beast started out of a ravine, galloped as hard as he 

 could lay legs to the ground for four hundred yards, and then 

 calmly lay down to think. After about a quarter of an hour 

 he rose, strolled leisurely over a ridge, and then cantered off to 

 some rocks about three-quarters of a mile away, where he lay 

 down again. This necessitated a climb to the top of the hill, 

 whence, wind and cover being perfect, the stalk would be easy 

 enough. He remained there just long enough to enable the 

 pursuer to begin the easy part of the stalk, when up he got, 

 cantered gracefully back across the valley, and lay down on the 

 opposite hill, in another very tempting position. This move 

 entailed a detour, so as to cross the valley out of sight, and 

 another climb up the far hill ; half an hour was spent in reaching 

 the desired spot : but though from there a magnificent view 

 could be had of all the country round, there was not a sign of 

 the shapoo, and the ground was too dry to show his tracks- 

 Verily, shapoo are only shot when they give themselves away. 



Shapoo are very tough beasts. The writer once regularly 

 raked a ram galloping straight from him at thirty yards ; the 

 bullet, from a -500 Express, caught him on the rump, and the 

 base of it was afterwards cut out in front of the liver ; yet the 

 ram ran some two hundred and fifty yards, stopped for about a 

 minute to look round, and then started off again at a gallop, 

 but after going a hundred yards fell over dead. The writer 

 remembers no other instance of an animal stopping to gaze in its 

 death gallop. 



XXXIV. OORIA.'L (Ovis cycloceros] 

 Generally ' Oorial,' ' KuchJ in the Suleiman range 



This sheep is found in the Salt range near Jhelum, and where- 

 ever there are any suitable hills on both banks of the Indus from 

 about Peshawur down to Beloochistan, where it is replaced by 

 the next variety, Ovis Blanfordi. The ram has a long ruff of 



