The Stories of Two Ibex 35 



were enough, and words superfluous. The ridge 

 here turned at a right angle, forming on the 

 inside a snow-filled gully and on the outside a 

 steep cliff, a thousand feet or so in height, of 

 broken rocks. It was on the latter the ibex 

 were lying. 



Gul Sher had the telescope propped up on the 

 ridge crest, and I crawled up and applied my eye. 

 There were two ibex in the field of view, and one 

 of them was the monster, with horns forming 

 an almost complete circle, though reaching right 

 back behind his shoulders, a truly magnificent 

 head, measuring fifty inches at least. They were 

 lying facing us, and a lot of does and kids were 

 scattered all about and around. The herd was 

 about five hundred yards away, and so we worked 

 without further ado along the ridge towards them. 

 The wind was in our faces, but dark clouds had 

 appeared on the horizon, and no time was to be 

 lost, as it might change any moment. After 

 going a few hundred yards, a small Y-shaped 

 depression in the crest gave what seemed a good 

 firing point ; so we crept to this and looked over. 

 The big ibex was within a hundred yards of us, 

 still lying facing us, but with head and a por- 

 tion only of his chest visible. I might have 

 taken the shot then, but I intensely desired to 



