212 A LUCKY SHOT. 



spectacle, that at first I forgot to notice what had become of 

 the other gooral. I now observed it climbing away over the 

 steep rocks, so I chanced the contents of the second barrel at 

 it. The bullet must have shaved, if it did not strike it, for it 

 seemed to crouch down for a few seconds before finally dis- 

 appearing. 



I now got back to where I had left my companion 

 below. He had been able to see the falling gooral for the 

 whole length of its tremendous descent, during which, he 

 said, it had only touched the rocks twice. I afterwards 

 ascertained, with my mountain aneroid, that the drop was 

 almost a sheer 1000 feet. 



As we sat there watching our little tents being pitched, the 

 noise made by the men who had gone down to fetch the fallen 

 gooral disturbed another that had been reposing in some 

 secluded niche beside the big precipice. Across the face of 

 this the sure-footed creature took its way along an almost 

 imperceptible ledge, which could only have been a few inches 

 wide. When about half-way over it stopped, with its head 

 craned forward to gaze down at the men, who had just reached 

 the dead beast below. 



I signalled to the men who were pitching the tents a short 

 distance below where my companion and I were seated, to 

 bring me up my rifle (which I had left there), with the idea 

 of taking a sky shot at the beast, but without a notion of 

 being able to hit it ; for, although nearly on a level with us, 

 it was fully 300 yards off. Sighting for that distance, I lay 

 down and took my shot. Judge of our astonishment, then, at 

 seeing the animal fall from the ledge and drop clear 500 feet, 

 down almost beside where, on a steep sloping chaos of loose 

 rocks and dtbris that had originally slipped from the precipice 

 above, the first gooral lay, and nearly on to the heads of the men 

 who were preparing to shoulder it. The mangled remains of 

 the two goorals were soon brought up, when we were surprised 

 to find them much less smashed and torn than ' might have 



