208 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



over 2000 feet of boulders, for no apparent reason 

 shifted their ground. As 



the wise hares 



Oft quit their seats, lest some more curious eye 

 Should mark their haunts, and by dark treach'rous wiles 

 Plot their destruction, 



so the not less "wise" burhel ; and they repeated 

 the manoeuvre on my making a second attempt. 

 This time they lay down behind a ridge that 

 seemed made for a stalk. Climbing over boulders 

 under a hot sun at a great elevation is gruelling 

 work, but the wind was fair, and I had every 

 reason to think that my toil would be rewarded. 

 But the spirits of the mountains were against me. 

 I crawled the last few yards and looked over. 

 But as I with the utmost caution raised my 

 head, so simultaneously did every animal in that 

 herd spring to his feet and dash down the 

 mountain - side, that I had a sort of uncanny 

 feeling that they had been forewarned, and were 

 all lying with their eyes fixed on the ridge wait- 

 ing for the moment that a human head should 

 slowly appear before vanishing in a cloud of dust. 



I therefore trusted burhel to do nothing but 

 the unexpected. What happened now was that 

 they walked straight up to within a hundred 

 and fifty yards of where I was lying, rifle in 

 hand. They probably would have come nearer, 



