A LUCKY SHOT. 165 



space. I watched it almost with a thrill of awe, as it went 

 whirling through the air, until the latter part of its descent 

 was hid from my view by the crags that projected over the 

 profound depth below. So fascinated was I by this extra- 

 ordinary, I may almost call it appalling 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 disappearing. 



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 ofif. 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 ddhris that had originally slipped from the 

 precipice above, the first gooral lay, and nearly on to the 



