284 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



forest, while I placed myself on the top of a 

 " bealleach," by which the beasts would cross to the 

 next valley. It was the right place. I soon saw 

 deer moving towards me. First some hinds came 

 by. When quite close they saw me, and with a 

 start of alarm galloped by. Then a switch-horn 

 stag. I was tempted to take him, but let him go 

 for fear of turning the royal. Presently a confused 

 murmur and shouting reached me. I saw the 

 black figures of beaters running over the snow, 

 and guessed our stag had broken back. It was so. 

 Looking with the glasses I saw him and his satel- 

 lite, the ten-pointer, just clear of the forest the 

 far end, and going hard, and in a moment they 

 were lost to view. 



After a few days both were back in their old 

 haunt. Before reaching our spying place we had 

 walked along the ridge, and in doing so had come 

 on tracks in the snow, showing that the two stags 

 had crossed over the evening before for the grass 

 on the south side and had returned early in the 

 morning. We did not actually pick them up 

 that day till late in the afternoon, when we saw 

 them moving up towards the ridge, evidently in- 

 tending to cross it. Keturning there, we sat down 

 to wait for them. It has already been said that 

 there was no point on the ridge from which the 

 whole could be watched, and of course the place 



