CHAPTER V 



A PROTRACTED CHASE 



AFTER breakfast we had the telescope out 

 again, and after half an hour's search saw 

 our ibex emerge from a small deep nullah 

 low down the hill, where they had been 

 driven by yesterday's snow ; and, as we 

 gazed, they came yet lower for their morn- 

 ing meal, proving conclusively that they had 

 not been much frightened really, for in that 

 case they would have been content to remain 

 on the highest crags, and would have satis- 

 fied their appetites with the dry and tasteless 

 grass of the peaks. We watched them care- 

 fully for a couple of hours as they grazed 

 about, picking a scanty meal from among the 

 newly fallen snow, which, however, was now 

 melting fast under the influence of a gener- 

 ous sun, shining out of a perfectly clear sky. 

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