n6 IBEX SHOOTING 



about fifty yards long and a full two hundred 

 yards wide. The snow over it was some 

 ten feet deep, and had slipped as an ava- 

 lanche from the hillside, and the river had 

 forced a passage under it. It had fallen in 

 in places, and was of course constantly 

 melting, and subsiding into the torrent ; it 

 had deep fissures in it at the end we were 

 approaching ; the middle, having sunk, was 

 perhaps five feet lower than the sides. Fur- 

 ther on the snow was comparatively level, 

 considering that it had fallen, not from 

 heaven, but down from the mountain. A 

 coolie crossed it, under my nose, at the 

 near end, so I disregarded Lassoo's orders 

 not to cross there, but higher up, and was 

 punished, as usual, by getting a severe 

 shock ; for just as I was well in the middle, 

 the snow suddenly gave an ominous crack 

 right under my feet. Nothing more, it is 

 true, but quite enough to be very alarming, 

 for the idea of being launched, with a few 

 tons of hard snow as playmates, into a tear- 

 ing mountain torrent is not a pleasant one, 



