4O Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



from wolf and snow -leopard. My stalker and I 

 had been watching this particular herd off and 

 on for many days, and with the greatest care, 

 for in it was a monster like which few have been 

 shot and fewer still could remain in the Grilgit 

 Kohistan or any other part of the Himalayas. 

 He was with a herd of fourteen others, all hoary 

 old males. But whenever we had seen them, 

 they were always high up on this same rock face 

 and absolutely unapproachable from any direction. 

 A seat like Sinbad on the back of the simurg, or 

 even a modern flying machine, might have served 

 our purpose, but nothing else. Inaccessible and 

 distant though they were, as they moved about 

 we could distinctly see their great spiral horns 

 against the patches of snow which lay here and 

 there. Soon after taking up our post of observa- 

 tion in the early morning, we had found out that 

 the big one was not that day with the herd, and 

 on running through the muster, fourteen were 

 counted instead of the full fifteen. Still, at any 

 moment he might appear from some hidden ravine 

 or cranny, so we settled ourselves down to a day 

 of watching. 



Old Gul Sher was no bad companion with 

 whom to while away a long day's spying. He 

 was not a great talker ; who is that has spent his 

 life, or the greater part of it, alone with Nature ? 



