90 IBEX. 



the glaciers on the southern side. Some of our slides were from 

 300 yards to 400 yards, down steep snow-slopes, which we negotiated by 

 simply sitting down and letting ourselves go "a la toboggan; " it was so 

 wetting that I placed my light mackintosh under that portion of the body 

 that was in the greatest proximity to the slide ! 



It came on to sleet when we had reached the snow line below, and our 

 condition on arrival at a miserable lean-to shed under a cliff was pitiable 

 indeed; our quarters were filthy, there was no space on which a tent 

 could have been pitched, and one coolie with the servants' shuldarie (tent) 

 did not turn up that night. I felt certain he had perished on the pass, as 

 he was old and infirm, and had simply come from sheer necessity, the 

 wages (one rupee) being quite a large sum, on which he could subsist for 

 a month at the least. Next morning a rescue party was sent up 

 the gorge towards the pass, and met the old fellow toiling down, 

 quite cheerful, but weak ; he had wrapped himself up in the tent 

 and slept under an overhanging rock. A little aqua vitce refreshed 

 him, and he was able to finish the journey out of the pass, but with 

 a lighter load. 



When I reached nay ground it was the beginning of May, and I 

 wandered over much country before I succeeded in getting a shot. I 

 first tried in a nullah on the Kashmir frontier, and was nearly taken 

 prisoner by the native ruler's guard, who were protecting some gold- 

 smelting works. There were ibex on the cliffs around my camp, where 

 no white man had shot for twenty years; but I was ordered out by 

 the resident at the Kashmir court, and with a heavy heart I had to try 

 poorer ground. 



After a week's wandering in and out of nullahs, I found some game at 

 last, and started next morning, after the usual hasty breakfast, to try for 

 a head. I had two villagers from the next valley, to act as guides and 

 rifle-carriers (I gave up the professional shikarie long ago as a real bad 

 investment), honest, hard- working men, who were most useful, and took 

 good care of me in some of the very worst ground I have tried. We first 

 worked up to the foot of the landslips on the site of a village during 

 summer months in years gone by. One day the slip began, the people 

 and flocks escaped, and the next not a vestige of the village remained, 

 only the edge of some cultivated patches. Such was the tale I heard, and 

 very dangerous the remaining patches looked. 



A few thin little pines grew at the base of the cliffs above the old 

 village site, so we clambered up to them to reconnoitre. Stones came 

 tumbling down, but we could not detect the game, so faced the cliffs 

 where a small gorge made ascent practicable, and, after an awfully 

 stiff climb, almost reached the top of the ridge, just below the old 

 winter's snow. 



Along the cliffs some ibex were detected by one of my men, so we 

 worked over, above them ; I got on to a sloping rock, and surveyed them 

 through my glasses, being concealed by some rough herbage. Presently 



