60 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



vider." He is commonly supposed to hunt for the 

 larger animals of prey, and then, when he has dis- 

 covered anything, he invites them to the repast with 

 his, to them, welcome yellings. Whether he had 

 proposed to himself a treat of the kind off our re- 

 mains, I am not sufficiently a naturalist to declare 

 positively, hut he certainly haunted us with his 

 dreadful howls and shrieks for about ten minutes. 

 One of our servants then fired a pistol-shot at random 

 into the darkness toward the sound, and we heard no 

 more of our dismal visitant. The first streak of dawn 

 showed TIS we were passing some low stony hills to 

 the right of our road. Beyond these, we were told, 

 at a distance of some twelve miles, lay the ruins of 

 Shahpoor. We left the plain of Kauzeroon by the 

 pass of Tung-i-Toorkoon ; and a most formidable de- 

 file we found it. Hitherto I had never had the mis- 

 fortune to ride through any pass approaching this one 

 in roughness and badness of road. Turning west, we 

 struck into a defile, leading through gigantic rocks 

 of limestone and gypsum, piled in confused masses 

 around us. For about a mile and a half the hard 

 dry bed of a mountain - torrent was the only road- 

 maker. So narrow is the way that, in many places, 

 two horsemen could not ride abreast. We dis- 

 mounted, and led our horses over the great boulders 

 of rock, over which the passing caravans had worn, 

 here and there, rough steps. The horses found a 

 difficulty in getting along; even the sure-footed 



