62 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



sides of the nullahs being too steep to stand on, 

 had either to be crossed at a run or by the slow 

 and sure way of cutting steps ; but one of these 

 giving way would have meant a bad fall. 

 Boulders half embedded in the stiff sandy clay 

 offered footsteps which it was safer to avoid. 



It was on similar ground, and close by here, 

 that a good sportsman met his death about a 

 year subsequently to the date of my story. He 

 had shot an urial, and was hurrying towards 

 the fallen beast, when he put his foot on a 

 boulder sticking out of the cliff; it gave way, 

 and he fell a hundred feet or so, fracturing his 

 skull. 



Gul Sher was simply marvellous on this sort 

 of ground, as he was also on rocks, taking the 

 bad bits at a run with absolute assurance. His 

 footgear strips of hide wrapped round the foot 

 and up his leg (a chaussure I have never learnt 

 to wear) gave him, of course, a little advantage 

 over the nails in my Kashmiri sandals. We 

 had to retrace our steps once to find a better 

 road, so it was some time before we spied our 

 urial. They were on a ridge some 500 yards 

 away, in front of and below us, the two rams 

 lying down and the rest of the herd standing 

 round about them. But in half a minute they 

 too lay down. To our disgust, however, just 



