316 A SNOW-LEOPARD SHAKES OUR SPOILS. 



been standing immediately above and behind him. Had it 

 struck an inch or two lower, it would in all probability have 

 killed them both. 



It was disappointing to have thus killed the wrong 

 animal by mistake, but on getting down to the beasts I 

 had shot, it was consoling to find that the ram had perfect 

 horns, 27 inches long. As it was now getting late, there 

 was no time to gralloch them, so we merely cut slits in 

 their paunches to let out the foul gas, and taking off the big 

 fellow's head, made the best of our way back to camp, 

 which we reached just before dark. 



Next day the men sent to fetch the dead burrell found an 

 " ounce," or, as it is more commonly called, a snow-leopard, 

 at work on them. If the stupids had only had sense enough 

 to leave one of tlie carcasses as a bait, the beast would cer- 

 tainly have returned to it, and in all probability I should 

 have got a shot at a rather rare animal I was most anxious 

 to kill. During that visit to Goting I had two more days 

 on other good beats ; but as I have said quite enough about 

 burrell-hunting for the present, we will now resume our 

 journey towards Hund(3S. 



A few miles above Goting the valley suddenly contracts 

 into a deep and narrow defile. Just before entering it, I 

 shot a ram out of a flock of burrell that unexpectedly showed 

 themselves above some high rocks overhanging the track. 

 The animals had evidently come down to a salt-lick there is 

 here close by the wayside. The beast I had killed had most 

 conveniently fallen down on to the track, where we left him 

 for the men following with the jooboos to pick up. Through- 

 out the defile, which is several miles long, the river was then 

 covered over with a hard bed of snow, which made our pro- 

 gress there much easier than on our return, after the snow- 

 bed had disappeared, when the baggage -animals had to 

 scramble along the rocky steeps rising abruptly from the 

 river. We had some trouble, however, in circumventing one 

 or two awkward places where the snow had already fallen 



