8o Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



it certainly seems as if the latter animal had much 

 more affinity with the markhor than with his 

 namesake the ibex of the Himalaya. Like all 

 the breeds of wild goats and sheep, a markhor's 

 age can be told by the rings on the horn, the 

 growth of which constitutes a rather remarkable 

 phenomenon. It is of course secreted from the 

 base, and the spiral bony core on which it grows 

 being fixed, the horn must slide over it as each 

 segment is added from below, rather like a cork 

 being withdrawn from a corkscrew, so that the 

 tip that at one time is pointing outwards, at 

 another period points inwards. 



The ibex is always found very high up, but 

 usually in less precipitous ground than the mar- 

 khor. He is also a somewhat less difficult beast 

 to shoot. A puff of wind in a wrong direction 

 is fatal to the success of a stalk for either, but 

 the distance from which a human being will be 

 detected is perhaps not so great in the case of 

 ibex as with his shaggy relative. 



When other beasts are driven to lower eleva- 

 tions by winter cold and snow, ibex remain at 

 the same height as in summer, or nearly so. 

 This peculiarity has caused a glamour of the 

 supernatural to surround ibex in all the hill 

 countries of the Himalaya. The Ladaki song 

 says 



