THE SPORTSMAN'S VADE-MECUM 



FOR THE 



HIMALAYAS. 



WHENEVER the annual shooting season in the glorious Himalayas 

 draws near, many an eager sportsman commences preparing his 

 battery, kit, and stores, for a trip to one of those nullahs where 

 the best heads are to be found, known to the favoured few. 

 What a hurry, bustle, and race there is to get into Kashmir and 

 push on at once, with some celebrated shikarie, to the nullah 

 where Jones got the big ibex, or to the valley where Smith got 

 the grand markhor, or to that part of Ladak where last year 

 Robinson saw and stalked, unsuccessfully, the largest Ovis 

 ammon in the world ! The men from Bombay have the best of 

 it, compared with those from Bengal, as they get a month's start, 

 and can reach the ground earlier, provided the various snow passes 

 are open ; if still closed they have to put up with long, wearying 

 delays, which detract much from the total pleasure of the trip. 

 As they have to leave in September, they cannot have much of a 

 time with the red deer (Bara singh), whose horns are likely to be 

 in velvet until the last week of that month, so there is some 

 consolation for the Bengal men. 



Well, every man has an idea of his own, sometimes founded on 

 his past experience, sometimes on that of others, and in these 

 notes it is intended to review the most useful patterns of different 

 things taken with him by a sportsman, and the difficulties he may 

 encounter, founded on the experience of the writer. If others 

 find them as useful and suitable as he did during his trips in those 

 regions, he will feel that they were not kept in vain. 



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