314 WATCHING FOR BURRELL. 



Up and still up the beasts continued slowly to ascend, 

 until, after watching them for an hour or more, we finally 

 lost sight of them among the snow-fields above. As they 

 would be pretty sure to descend again in the evening to 

 their feeding-ground, we moved upward for some distance to- 

 wards a commanding spot from whence we could more easily 

 watch their movements. We were skirting a small coppice 

 of birch and rhododendron bushes, when a fine little buck 

 musk-deer jumped up close to us. As he stopped to look 

 back I sent a bullet through him, but had to follow up and 

 give him a second shot before securing him. After re- 

 lieving him of his musk-bag (which ought always to be 

 done at once), and hiding him from the birds of prey, we 

 continued our ascent to the spot where we intended to wait 

 for the burrell. 



Here I discussed my breakfast, and then commenced a 

 careful search with the telescope for our friends above. 

 At length I made them out, reposing on some bare rocks 

 among the snow- fields ; and with the glass I could discern 

 the arching horns of one of the big fellows, standing out in 

 relief against a snow-bed, as he lay on a slab of stone 

 below it. For hours we waited there, every now and then 

 taking a look through the spy-glass at the burrell, lest we 

 should lose sight of them if they moved, until, as the 

 afternoon wore on, they rose. At first they came down- 

 ward very slowly ; but hunger, I suppose, soon made them 

 quicken their movements, till they got below the snow- 

 fields, when they stopped from time to time to nibble the 

 dry withered leaves of the dwarf rhododendron plants,^ the 

 only vegetation apparently up there. After making pretty 

 sure of their intentions, we commenced a stalk up to meet 

 them, for it was now drawing towards evening, and we 



^ The bloom of these little shrubs is here a pale yellow ; in other respects 

 they are exactly similar to the Alpen rosen. I was told that the red-liowered 

 kind also grows here, though I never saw it myself. 



