IBEX. 207 



but missed another buck with my left, the remainder ran a 

 few yards and halted, not knowing whence the danger 

 came, and evidently bewildered, as I was above them, and 

 they kept looking everywhere except in that direction. 

 Creeping forward I got a buck and a doe right and left, 

 and had time to reload and fire a snap-shot at another buck 

 as he bounded off with the rest of the herd, but missed him. 

 They then disappeared into the mist, bounding from crag 

 to crag in a marvellous way. The shikaries begged for 

 one more ibex 'for their village, and as I knew there were 

 at least two very good bucks in front, being the ones I 

 had missed, on we went. 



The herd had not gone more than a few hundred 

 yards, and we soon came upon them again, and I knocked 

 over two bucks, right and left, which were standing close 

 to each other on a pinnacle enveloped in fog. Atlay said 

 we should not be able to get them. I got close to the spot, 

 and found they had fallen over a precipice into a forest at 

 the foot of the hill, far, far below. Atlay explained that 

 it was impossible to reach them from where we were, even 

 with ropes, but that it could be done from our encamp- 

 ment, or from one of their villages near Perrincudavoo, 

 and that it would be a two days' job. This was very 

 disheartening, but could not be helped. Returning to 

 where the buck and doe had been shot, I climbed down the 

 face of the precipice to recover them, and had no difficulty 

 with the first one, which had fallen on a ledge just below 

 the plateau, but the other was in a very difficult spot to 

 reach on a sort of isolated pinnacle, the surroundings 

 of which could not be ascertained, owing to the thick fog. 

 The ledge on which the first one (a doe) had fallen, ran 

 along the face of the cliff to within a few yards of the 

 pinnacle, where the buck was stuck in a cleft, but then 



