]BEX SHOOTING. 319 



persuading them to treat and charge us as 

 they did there, and he had to run for his 

 skin. However, we procured here all we 

 required, in the way of supplies, and with 

 a fresh set of coolies returned up the valley 

 again, to the ibex ground, for another day's 

 shooting. 



The sport was indifferent, and the weather 

 very bad ; we were caught in a violent snow 

 storm whilst on our beat, which drove us to 

 shelter with our backs resting against a huge 

 rock, and there fortunately being plenty of 

 wood near at hand, a blazing fire defended us 

 from the severity of weather. Had fortune 

 favoured us with a reasonably fine day, we 

 should have made up a splendid bag. We 

 saw some of the finest ibex I have ever met 

 with, and I knocked a female off a rock, but 

 recovering from the first shock of the wound, 

 she got up and went off. The weather 

 rendered any further pursuit useless. 



Next day we found it so bitterly cold, and 

 the stock of wood in the village running so 

 low, that notwithstanding it was Sunday, 



