THE -450 EXPRESS. 87 



hill, but, as usual, they chiefly watched the hill-sides opposite and below 

 them ; and by a judicious use of the glasses we were enabled to remain 

 stationary whenever they scanned the snow and rocks we were on. At 

 last we reached some juniper bushes, where I left the goojur, and con- 

 tinued sliding down the snow on my back an exceedingly cold, wet job 

 I made for a dead tree I had marked before commencing the stalk, and 

 advanced to within 40 yards of the game. Here a difficulty arose, as 

 there were three pines, and from the position I was in (so different from 

 those I had occupied en route], I could not determine under which the 

 game lay; the ground was broken much very different from the flat 

 patch it looked like from above. 



Having the rifle cocked, I carefully commenced reconnoitring, first one 

 side of the stump, then the other, but could not detect them. Suddenly 

 they started up from amongst the hollows, about twenty yards away from 

 me, and bolted over the edge of the moraine like a flash, and I missed the 

 shot I snapped at them, after giving a " chuck, chuck ! " to try to halt them. 

 They must have been watching me for some time behind the tree, you 

 might say, but I think not. I had the wind, and they were probably 

 gazing in other directions, until some movement of my head attracted 

 their attention, and then they were off "eck dum" ("one breath," i.e., 

 instanter). I had been looking for them under the wrong tree for five 

 minutes. Had I hit off the right I might have bagged both ! I reloaded 

 and ran on to cut them off along the face of the moraine ; but they did 

 not appear, so I turned back, and on looking down over the edge, hanging 

 on to a bush, saw the head and shoulders of one the bigger, I believe. 

 He was gazing up at me, not 30 yards below. I let go the bush, trying 

 to fire at his neck, but had to aim through some grass growing in the 

 cleft of a rock about half-way down, and on firing could see nothing. 

 Almost immediately a markhor appeared at the bottom of the steep part 

 of the moraine, and stopped, turning to look up. No doubt, my clothes 

 being the colour of the rocks, I was still not quite identified with genus 

 homo, and the sounds .of the shots had reverberated all round. I had 

 reloaded, and was about to fire, when he moved off across the huge 

 boulders that lay huddled together just as they were left by the snow on 

 an opportune plateau on the hillside. 



He could not travel very fast, but his movements were not in a bee-line 

 by any means, and I put up the leaf for 200 yards, before trying a shot, 

 as he was a long way below and away from me. I aimed between his 

 shoulders and let drive. Immediately I saw him stagger, and his hind 

 feet slipped off a rock. I guessed I had bagged him, so watched him 

 going on much more slowly, quite crippled behind, and at last down he 

 dropped, rolled over a couple of times, and lay dead. The goojur went to 

 hallal him as usual, so I looked the other way till that operation was 

 accomplished, then clambered down carefully and across to the spot. I 

 found the horns very straight, and therefore not so long as they appeared, 

 being only 32in. On following the course of the bullet, I found the 



