THE -450 EXPRESS. 85 



shot, and I soon put matters right. We followed him, the native along 

 his track, while I clambered above, and soon came on him lying down 

 amongst a few birches, breathing heavily. I waited for my man to 

 turn up, beckoned him to me, and finished the game, when he rose to his 

 feet, with a bullet in the neck. This was a young markhor, with small 

 horns, and nothing like so large or heavy as my first. 



My man then went off over the cliffs and corries, looking for the others, 

 which he found soon enough ; but my heart-breaking coolies came, chatter- 

 ing loudly, along a sheep-path below where I had been shooting ; they 

 were seen by the game, which went away for miles, across and down the 

 valley to a distant ridge. I could do no more that morning, and made 

 myself at home by going down to my permanent camp in the valley far 

 below, where skins were pegged out and heads cleaned. 



For some days after this I saw nothing but females and small males, 

 amongst some gorges I had not been in before ; I fired at nothing, so by 

 this time some of them may be real good ones, I think. 



On the next Monday morning I was up with the dawn, and away to the 

 top of the high cliff that overhung our camp ; I suppose it was six miles 

 up and around, and we had all our trouble for nothing, for we found plenty 

 of good tracks, but saw only females and small males. We tried back 

 around the crest, until we reached the edge of an awful khud (precipice) 

 above the gorge where I shot my first markhor ; stones went rattling 

 down, but we could not see the face of the cliff, and it was perfectly 

 unscalable. A cruel cold wind was driving through us, and I could barely 

 retain my hold of the alpenstock ; we scrambled along the crest, seeing 

 females and small males, until at last I was so cold and exhausted that I 

 had to squat down under a rock and try to get shelter while I rubbed my 

 hands and feet, and recovered my wind. At these high altitudes in 

 October, exertion very much sooner exhausts one than earlier in the year, 

 after March. A fine old cock Monaul pheasant suddenly shot out from 

 immediately under my seat, and went floating down into the valley with 

 his usual outcry; he had not noticed my arrival, but while feeding up 

 the rocks had got my wind, and made off, as he had no idea how near I 

 might be. 



Snow began to fall, so I was about to move off and clamber down to 

 where I had ordered my camp to be made, but just sent my man up to 

 examine the pass and nullah on the north side of it, to see if any game had 

 come up ; it was getting dark, too, and markhor move out to feed before 

 the short twilight is ended. He soon hissed to attract my attention, and, 

 when I had got up, he pointed out a markhor ; but I could only see the 

 animal through the glasses, as he was behind some thin birch trees. He 

 was standing with his stern to the snowy blast, looking down toward my 

 camp far below. After some time I could just distinguish him with my 

 naked eye, put up the leaf for 200 yards, and tried to take aim. See him 

 I could not, I was so blinded with the cold, and it was so dark with the 

 snow-clouds overhead ; at last I made him out very dimly, and pressed 



