360 SHORT STALKS 



down to fetch it, and did not reappear for an hour, when 

 he returned without the buck. He had followed it 

 by the Ijloody trail which its body had made as it 

 slid downwards, until the cliif got too steep for him. 

 From this point he could see to the base of it, and the 

 small snow-field which sloped away from it, but nothing of 

 the buck. To reach the bottom thev had to make a detour 

 of two hours ; but when this was accomplished, there were 

 still no signs of the dead izzard. At last they came to 

 the conclusion that he must have fallen behind the snow, 

 which had melted away from the rock, leaving a cleft, into 

 which they could neither see nor descend ; Ijut there 

 remained one more chance of reachino- it. By oreat oood 

 luck the stream which fell down the rock had worn a way 

 for itself under the snow. Proceedino' to the foot of the 

 slope they cautiously crawled, on all fours, up the tunnel, 

 and, after a difficult piece of underground clambering, 

 found their quarry and Ijrought it once more into the 

 daylight. 



So far as numbers were concerned, I once had a still 

 better day than the above. On the plateau above mentioned 

 there are several curious deep crater-like hollows which 

 ought to be lakes, but that the water, which flows into 

 them, escapes through suljterranean passages in the soft 

 limestone. I f^und a herd of izzards in the bottom of the 

 largest of these, which is about half a mile in diameter, and 

 perhaps 500 ft. deep. I killed one at the first shot, and 

 as there was no escape for them except by mounting the 

 steep slope opposite to me, they kept stopping and giving 

 me a second, third and fourth chance, so that I had three 

 lying dead before they got out of range. 1 had killed 



