94 SHIKAR 



7th Juno. Remained in camp : resolved on an attempt 

 on the ibex to-morrow. 



8th June. An early start, and a stiff job climbing the 

 the mountain, which took us nearly two hours, and our 

 toil was unrewarded by the sight of a single ibex. The 

 hunters carefully reconnoitred the whole neighbourhood 

 ineffectually. 



Whilst at breakfast, they came and reported a bear in 

 view, asleep under a tree. 1 descended to the assault 

 over difficult ground ; and Bruin, asleep with one eye 

 open, was distrustful, and hearing the click of my rifle, 

 when cocking, made off. I fired three shots, all striking 

 him, and quite disabling him ; two shikarries after him, 

 who fired three shots close by, and after some time I 

 saw the wounded bear crawling along, a considerable way 

 off: after some time, three or four shots more, then 

 silence again, a shot or two. Phuttoo and I remained 

 on the look out, wondering what the issue was ; and thus 

 for two hours, I think, we waited, once getting a glimpse 

 of the hunters far below us in some jungle. They did, 

 at length, return, bringing the bear's skin, upon which 

 some ten bullets were expended, and reporting that they 

 had wounded a female bara sing. 



We remained up all day, though all hopes of ibex had 

 been destroyed by the noise of the repeated discharges : 

 descended in the afternoon, and going through some 

 jungle I espied a deer, but could not get Subhan, who 

 was leading, to acknowledge my low signal which a 

 brawling stream close by drowned the sound of. I seized 

 a rifle from Mooktoo, and fired : the animal bounded out 

 of sight. Subhan followed to see the effect, and stopped, 

 beckoning me on, so I knew the shot had told. Hurry- 

 ing to him, he pointed to the animal stretched on the 

 ground, and advised another shot which hitting the back, 



