58 THE SPORTSMAN'S VADE-MECUM. 



this account (coupled with the snows being higher, and game 

 therefore more dispersed), the first two months are better ; and if 

 the season be dry and very cold, good sport may be hoped for. 



Wind is a thing you must pay attention to, and carefully prevent 

 game getting to leeward of you if possible. Bears in particular 

 depend on smell more than any other sense to warn them of 

 approaching danger. Markhor and ibex, too, do not depend on 

 sight alone ; it is acute, but they cannot distinguish a motionless 

 object sometimes. A markhor looked at the writer and his 

 rifle-carrier for a considerable time and never recognised them r 

 though he was scanning the whole hillside and they were lying 

 exposed within 350 yards of him. The ibex filing past were alluded 

 to before. Evidently smell has a good deal to do with most 

 game's knowledge of danger. Among crags and gorges the way 

 wind varies is incredible; sometimes you are sure you have the 

 wind of the game, and are well to leeward of him. You commence 

 your stalk, and on arrival at the point you hope to get your shot 

 from, you find the wind has veered round in some extraordinary 

 way, and is blowing straight to the game. You retire again, and 

 find on examination that the game has vanished, or is staring at 

 you from some distant and probably inaccessible point. 



CONCLUSION. 



These notes have been completed as far as lay in the writer's 

 power. One important point has been avoided, expense, on account 

 of the enormous difference in the sums expended by different men 

 over the same ground. It may be laid down for certain that the 

 actual travelling, living, pay, and feeding of servants, shikaries, 

 messengers, and coolies, and all other incidental expenses, will 

 never exceed Rs. 200 per mensem, if due care is taken of the 

 " dibs," and no one trusted to buy or pay for things on the sports- 

 man's account. Pay for everything yourself, and keep your money 

 under your own lock and key ; you may be quite sure that the 

 people will be better dealt with and will deal better with you, 

 than can possibly be the case if you entrust this duty to the best 

 servant in the land. 



