PLAINS OF GYANIMA 147 



felt now sure of a trophy, but, alas ! the sleet had pene- 

 trated the nipples of this rifle also, and the caps were wet ; 

 the first barrel was a miss-fire and the second a hang-fire, 

 so the astonished nyang scampered off unharmed, and 

 swearing was not the word for the expressions which 

 followed. Such is the uncertainty of big game shooting. 

 The disadvantages of the old nipple and copper cap 

 muzzle-loading rifles were indeed most serious, and bara 

 shikar in India was very much handicapped before 

 breech-loaders were invented. Yet for how many years 

 sportsmen went on believing fondly that the percussion 

 cap was the most perfect arrangement that modem 

 science could invent, and that breech-loaders could never 

 supersede it ! Little did we think that not one, but fifty 

 different patterns of breech-loaders would have come into 

 use, and magazine rifles, so perfect and practical that it 

 is hard to know which is the best. Big game had some 

 chance of escaping in days gone by, but now in a few 

 years big game will be no more. 



The night came on rapidly, and sleet turned to snow. 

 It was ten o'clock before the camp was reached. We 

 were thoroughly tired out and hungry and cold. How- 

 ever, Smyth, who had not had a shot, congratulated us 

 on having secured a good head ; and a good fire made of 

 yak's dung before the tent door warmed everything up, 

 and hot soup, followed by stewed hare and a roast snow 

 pheasant and a small glass of grog, kept for occasions 

 only, did wonders in re^oring the inner man, Smyth, 

 who considered Ovis Amnion to be the most difficult game 

 to find and shoot of all that exist, was surprised at the 

 number of rams I had come across. He declared that to 

 get ten shots in one day at good heads was a piece of 

 fortune he had never experienced. He expected that 

 they would now leave this locality, having been disturbed, 



