88 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



is necessary irritatingly so sometimes to avoid 

 passing beasts over. No " sweeping the horizon " 

 after the manner of a sea captain ! As a 

 shikari truly remarked to the writer, " Every 

 minute you spend with the glass to your eye 

 is * worth while.'" 



Urial have not the pashm or under-wool that 

 is so remarkable among beasts that live in very 

 cold altitudes, and they are in consequence never 

 found much above snow-level ; or perhaps, to be 

 more accurate, the latter should be classed as 

 cause and the former as effect. Heavy snowfall 

 drives them low down, and I have been shown 

 a spot on the Gilgit plain to which a few years 

 previously a big herd had descended in this way. 

 There they were surrounded by men and dogs, 

 and the whole herd mobbed to death. Judging, 

 however, from the numbers found in these parts, 

 this must have been a very unusual windfall for 

 the hungry Gilgitis. Now game laws, in the 

 framing and passing of which the writer is glad 

 to think he was closely connected, make such a 

 massacre impossible. The large number of urial 

 in this district is also explained by the fact that 

 these beasts leave the shikaris' hounds standing, 

 and absolutely refuse to be brought to bay in 

 precipices, like ibex and markhor. 



Like burhel, urial are very restless beasts, 



