146 SHORT STALKS 



hardly started for the stalk when a curious and painful 

 accident happened to me, which afterwards had unfortunate 

 consequences. Slipping up, I brought my hand down on 

 an edge of salt so sharp that it ripped the whole of the 

 skin from the ball of my thumb, leaving nothing but bare 

 flesh from the joint upwards. The mishap nearly caused 

 me to faint at the time, and gave me great pain for several 

 weeks afterwards. 



It took us an hour or more to reach the top of the clitf, 

 under a ledoe of which we had seen the mouflons lie down, 

 and creeping down with extreme caution, for the slope was 

 covered with loose stones, we reached the edge of a little 

 bluif which commanded the spot, and there we waited for 

 them to rise from behind the rocks where they lay, and 

 show themselves. For nearly four hours we lay broiling 

 in the sun, but our patience was in vain ; for they had 

 really changed their position before we arrived. At last a 

 great rattling of stones above us told only too well what 

 had happened. 1'hey had moved to the left while we w^ere 

 making our stalk, but, a herd of goats entering the valley, 

 they had returned, but above instead of below us, and 

 getting our wind, quickly took leave of that range. We 

 returned in a despondent mood over the Salt Mountain, 

 and followed the most beaten track I could find, where I 

 expected to see nothing. Going round a corner we nearly 

 stepped on a splendid fesldaJ. I snatched the rifle from 

 Andreas, nnd should have had an easy running shot, but 

 the handkerchief which I had wound round nnd round my 

 wounded thumb came in the way of the alignment of the 

 sights, and, before I could tear ofl' the miserable rag, he was 

 round the corner, and though in three or four seconds 1 



