314 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the camera, and the cooly, I struggle on, and 

 arrive where Gul Sher is crouched, looking over 

 into the next ravine. It seems all right. The ibex 

 are some 250 yards off, moving slowly towards 

 a point some 70 yards below us. I determine 

 to point my camera at this and await their 

 arrival. And now to fix up. 



" Quick," whispers Gul Sher. 



" Keep cool," I admonish myself, and begin 

 to set the apparatus up. The tripod had been 

 made with legs only a foot long, in order to be 

 easier kept under cover. I now find that this 

 modification has the unexpected result of making 

 it most difficult to manage. The rocks, too, are 

 sharp and angular, and not a bit of earth is 

 there in which to fix the points. " Quick," again 

 says the shikari, as I vainly attempt to induce the 

 tripod to stand. The legs wobble about in all 

 directions. After a minute's struggle, during 

 which the tripod seems to be endowed with 

 fiendish intelligence and determined to thwart 

 all my efforts, I at length get it to stand. The 

 ibex are, in the meantime, approaching a rock, 

 round which in a few seconds they will disappear, 

 and Gul Sher is groaning with anxiety. 



" Quick, sahib" again he whispers. The camera 

 is very unsteady, and as I direct it on the point 

 the ibex will pass I remember with a pang the 



