260 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



I was very much handicapped by the want of 

 a good telescope, being thrown back on the use of 

 a pair of foreign binoculars, so indifferent that they 

 did not show the horns at a couple of hundred 

 yards. On a good many occasions, too, I regretted 

 not having a rifle, for I lost several chances at 

 about 200 yards, which I feel sure I should not 

 have missed with an express. Although no Mend 

 to telescope sights and fancy ranges, I must admit 

 that 150 yards is too short a distance to be re- 

 stricted to, and in such stony ground it requires 

 very delicate stalking to " get in " to that distance. 



At last the time came to commence operations. 

 The waters of disappointment are a beverage the 

 taste of which I fancy is pretty familiar to every 

 chamois-hunter, but never, I think, did I drain 

 the dregs thereof more thoroughly than on my 

 first day in the Velez. As I have said, the main 

 range ran, roughly speaking, north and south, so 

 I naturally regulated my approach so as to strike 

 the lee side of the ground and work to windward. 

 On the morning of which I am about to speak a 

 fresh northerly wind was blowing, so I made for 

 the southern end of my ground. I have never 

 been a sportsman of the peep-of-day school, and 

 somehow the fact does not seem to have lost me 

 a great deal of sport. One thing I am sure of, 

 and that is that the man who goes through the 

 routine of tub and breakfast comfortabty before 



