A Day after Burhel 



203 



science going further than lago, who held it " very 

 stuff o' the conscience to do no murder," is be- 

 ginning to feel a certain repugnance to taking 

 life of any kind. 



But suchlike heretical thoughts, however much 

 they may hover about the remoter recesses of the 

 brain and even at times be admitted by the 

 keenest of sportsmen are not those that occur 

 at the juncture we have reached this day after 

 burhel. You gaze at the old warrior of the herd, 

 so distant, so wary ; you think almost with re- 

 sentment of his extraordinary cuteness, of all 

 the mishaps that may befall, the odds against 

 you. And even when you finally draw a bead 

 on him, may not the bullet go wide ? No : at 

 this time the end seems too far for one to be 

 conscious of anything but the overwhelming de- 

 sire of the hunter. A base and elementary in- 

 stinct, perhaps, but we deal with facts. 



I soon knew each ram by sight, and had set my 

 desires on a heavy beast with a magnificent pair 

 of horns. A burhel's head, it may be noted, is 

 by no means an easy thing to judge quickly or 

 at a distance, owing to the horns curving in two 

 planes. You look at the twin arches from in 

 front, but you cannot at the same time see the 

 terminal curve backwards ; while from a side view 

 it is the latter only that can be seen. 



