AMONG THE SNOW PEAKS 55 



loads. The sahib, carrying two Hght bamboos, walked 

 slowly in stockings. Two bamboos, 7 feet long each, 

 shod with iron, are wonderfully useful at this climbing 

 work, as they enable one to use the arms and shoulder 

 muscles to assist the leg muscles in raising the weight 

 upwards, and in descending the slopes they are far better 

 than one alpenstock, enabling the pedestrian to let himself 

 down by a series of short steps and bounds, kangaroo - 

 fashion, taking the strain off the shins. They are handy 

 also to steady the rifle when firing, being held cross-wise 

 in one hand, while the rifle rests in the fork. Emerging 

 from this nerve-trying passage, we found ourselves on 

 another grassy slope trending upwards towards a narrow 

 gorge from which no exit appeared. We rested a bit, 

 concealed by boulders, and scanned the next walls of 

 rock. It was well this precaution was taken, for, as 

 Punoo had predicted, we were not far from game. The 

 motion of an ear caught the eye, and sure enough there 

 lay a flock of about thirty she-goats and their kids, so 

 like the colour of the stones that it was difficult to dis- 

 tinguish them, even though the nearest was not 90 yards 

 away. Searching for the thicker horns of the males, one 

 or two could be distinguished lying asleep with legs 

 doubled up ; and resting the rifle on a boulder and firing 

 across the ravine, the first shot was successful in killing 

 a nice young fat buck, which luckily fell against a jutting 

 rock some 20 feet below. The report, though echoing 

 like a thunderclap, was not so alarming in a place where 

 thunder is common and the falling of rocks an hourly 

 occurrence. But the head of Punoo, showing in his ex- 

 citement to mark the falling thar, was the signal for a 

 rush ; and in a moment the whole flock disappeared round 

 a jutting crag, bounding apparently into the air as if to 

 certain destruction in the valley below. It is the most 



