of the Old World. 243 



the heart. The report soon brought up the gang, 

 and, having little time to lose, we merely hoisted our 

 quarry which proved to be a full stag with fine 

 branching antlers on to a huge boulder of rock, 

 where, having fastened a pocket-handkerchief to one 

 of the tines of his horns to scare away the vultures, 

 we left him until our return. After several hours' 

 clambering over broken ground, scarped rocks, and 

 deep gullies, without seeing any indication of animal 

 life, except a few butterflies, Naga called our atten- 

 tion to something moving along the scarped edge of a 

 high ridge of cliff which frowned like a wall high 

 above our heads, and with the aid of my field-glass I 

 discerned a fine buck-ibex, evidently the sentinel of a 

 herd, poised on a pinnacle of rock nearly half-a-mile 

 distant. As his head was turned towards us, and he 

 seemed to be watching our movements, I took it for 

 granted that our presence was discovered, so I told 

 Googooloo, Naga, and Hassan, to remain quiet where 



they were, whilst B , Chineah, and myself, made 



a detour so as to circumvent him. 



After intense labour we clambered up the face of 

 the cliff, having frequently to crawl along ledges of 

 rock, overhanging precipices down which we dare not 

 look, and with a good deal of manoeuvring managed 

 to get above our wary quarry, who was still apparently 

 intently observing the movement of our party below, 

 whilst seven others, confident in his watchfulness, 



R 2 



