AN EXTEAOEDINART FALL. 187 



The shooting, however, appears so tame when 

 comj)ared with the pursuit of larger game; 

 that in spite of the brilliant plumage and 

 beauty of the Himalayan pheasants, the 

 rarity of some of the species, and their 

 delicacy and flavour when placed on the 

 table, but few are killed by those who make 

 shooting excursions in the hills; save when 

 they fall in their way, and not always 

 then. 



We also bagged on our way down a fine 

 old bear, a black fellow ; and I witnessed one 

 of the most extraordinary feats performed 

 by an old tahir, that I, or any other man, 

 ever beheld. I shot him when about eighty 

 yards overhead, upon a ledge of rocks, he fell 

 perpendicularly that distance, without touch- 

 ing the ground, or the sides of the precipice, 

 rebounded, and fell again about fifteen yards 

 further down. I thought he was knocked 

 to atoms, — but up he got, and went ofi^, and 

 although we tracked him by his blood to a 

 considerable distance, we were after all un- 

 able to find him. 



