WATCHING A WOUNDED BURRELL. 343 



entailed a long circuit above to approach them. At length 

 we arrived within 180 yards or so of their position, which 

 was as near as we could possibly manage to get. It was 

 not only a long shot, but also a nasty downward one, for 

 wliich your sight elevation is always most difficult to judge 

 correctly, even when you have not got rarefied air to take 

 into account as well ; consequently the first bullet went 

 clean over the big ram I fired at. The report of the rifle, 

 from being so far above them, I suppose, had luckily only 

 the effect of startling the animals without putting them to 

 flight. My first shot had given me a clue to the proper 

 sighting, so the second was aimed about a yard short of 

 the same fellow's stern as he stood end on with his head 

 from me. Away they all scampered this time, but we could 

 see that the one I had shot at, which had taken a separate 

 line of his own, carried his off hind-leg dangling loosely 

 about, though he still held on until we lost sight of him 

 behind a ridge. We followed as quickly as possible to a 

 commanding spot on the ridge, whence he was again viewed, 

 now moving more slowly over a high tract of bare undulat- 

 ing ground, sloping gently up towards the snow-fields above, 

 for which he was evidently steering. We watched him with 

 the glass as he continued to hobble on, sometimes standing 

 for a few moments to rest, until we began to despair of his 

 ever lying down, as we hoped he would do. So I had my 

 breakfast, and by the time it was finished the burrell must 

 have been about two miles off. He now, however, began to 

 show signs of a more permanent stoppage, for all above him 

 was a steep bed of snow, which he evidently did not care to 

 ascend with a broken leg, for he altered his course and moved 

 slowly out of sight in a neighbouring ravine. 



After watching for some time without seeing the beast 

 emerge from the ravine, we concluded he must have at last 

 lain down there, so we set off as fast as the lead-like weight 

 of our " stumps " and the power of our " bellows " at such an 

 altitude would admit of, until at length we neared the ravine. 



