74 OOEIAL. 



where I was, hoping he would corne within range, for I have often found 

 game not observe niy presence (owing to my clothing being of a colour 

 suitable to the locality), until a movement has caught their eye. He 

 halted about 200 yards away, but behind a bush, so that his outline and 

 position were both concealed. Suddenly he advanced a little, and then 

 hurried down a ridge ; I tried to snap at him, misjudged, and hit just 

 behind him. I need not say he hooked it very smartly then. I turned 

 back for the road running through a piece of the range, met my chum, 

 and we galloped fourteen miles on into camp, where our kit and game 

 subsequently arrived safely. 



The ground patronised by oorial is certainly most exacting as to 

 endurance, health, and shoe-leather. The stones and pebbles are loose 

 and sharp, rendering walking dangerous, and removing the sole off an 

 ammunition-boot in an incredibly short time. Water is scarce and bad, 

 shade there is none, while the game is wary and able to travel at a great 

 pace over the most dangerous places. On one occasion I tried some hill 

 shoes, " chupplies," made from tree bark twisted up into thin rope. 

 They held well and made no noise, but I wore out two pairs a day and 

 could not replace them; for it was some 400 miles to the valley I got 

 them in ! Still, the game was worth getting, not existing out of the 

 Punjab save in distant Ladak, where it is called sharpoo, and generally 

 classed as a distinct species. After a very careful comparison and 

 examination of many heads, I am of opinion they are identical ; for it 

 must be granted by those who know the oorial proper that in different 

 ranges of hills different patterns of horns will be found, each peculiar to 

 its own locality. In the two I have visited I observed the horns 

 were generally lighter in colour, more polished, and perfect at the tips in 

 one, while they were heavier, rougher, and much broken in the other. 

 The latter were identical with sharpoo horns, while the former were like 

 neither, yet they were a little nearer sharpoo country, if one were to 

 consider the possible routes down the rivers along which the progenitors 

 may have travelled from Ladak. 



On returning to the plains from, a long trip in the hills, I made my way 

 to the range where I shot the oorial through the back of the head with 

 the single '450, but tried the '500 this time. I sent out a tent, &c., 

 which I reached after a very hot march, for it was early in October. 

 Next morning I soon found some, but amongst the herd of three males 

 and a dozen females there was nothing I thought good enough, so I went 

 on. After real hot and tiring climbing and scrambling, we came across 

 a similar herd, and then saw nothing till tbe afternoon, when an old man 

 we met volunteered to show me a big one that always lay down in a 

 certain spot he knew of. I explained to him that he was to look for 

 the game and point it out, so that I might make the stalk, for neither he 

 nor my gun-carrier knew anything of the art. He took me in hand at 



