Shoots round a Hill Station 



trees, and as I watched one disappeared altogether. 

 I could only see a bit of the other, hut in terror 

 of losing him and without getting my wind pro- 

 perly, I took the shot and that was the last I 

 ever saw of them. Hira Singh now climbed up 

 to me, and added to my mortification by much 

 shaking of his head and muttering, "Serow, serow," 

 and I knew then that I had had a chance at one 

 of the most difficult animals to obtain that range 

 the Himalayas. Though the serow does not live 

 exclusively in the greatest altitudes, where alone 

 some of the largest sheep and goats are to be 

 found, yet he is very seldom met with. He lives 

 in the thickest jungle of the deepest and darkest 

 ravines, and is very shy. A link between the 

 antelope and the goat, he resembles the former in 

 the speed he gallops off downhill, and the latter in 

 the short work he makes of the most precipitous 

 places ; thus, though fairly numerous in places, 

 many a man has shot in the Himalayas for years 

 and never even seen one. 



On the return journey to camp, I was medi- 

 tating on the wickedness of the world when Hira 

 Singh, who had an impressive manner, took my 

 arm and, pointing below, said, hurriedly and with 

 the slight stammer he had, " Sus-surak, sahib, 

 nichi." Down I lay, wild with excitement to 

 retrieve my disaster, and, cocking my rifle, 

 wriggled along to a rock, round which I cautiously 



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