46 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



reach a high ledge, a halt to look round, and on 

 again. They were quite safe, and knew it. To 

 pursue them would be useless, and to get above 

 them at that time of year impossible ; nothing 

 remained but to return to camp or wait where we 

 were till the evening, when, if they had not got our 

 wind, they might come down again. We elected 

 the latter course, and, having retired a few hundred 

 yards to avoid an upward current of air taking the 

 markhor news of our ambush, spent the short 

 winter's day as comfortably as we could. Many 

 times did we measure in anticipation that markhor's 

 horns, but as G-ul Sher said, " It was not in his 

 fate to meet death that day." Evening came, but 

 not the markhor, and we returned to camp cold, 

 hungry, and disappointed. 



It was not till ten days after this, during which 

 I had twice seen the big markhor, but without its 

 being possible to attempt a stalk, that the herd 

 again one evening wandered into the identical 

 ravine where we had stalked them before. Next 

 morning was one of those glorious days one gets 

 in the Himalaya in the depth of winter. Not a 

 breath of wind, the sky cloudless and of the 

 deepest blue, against which the black jagged peaks 

 of the mountains, encrusted in lines and ridges 

 with snow and seemingly bound in silver, stood 

 out in the clear air with extraordinary sharpness 



