CHAPTER VI. 

 GOORAL, 



SHOOTING this small game is excellent practice with the rifle, as gooral 

 inhabit slopes of grass sufficiently steep and slippery to demand care when 

 moving, and easy adaptation of oneself to awkward positions when firing. 

 I know no game that inhabits barer hillsides, where one must particularly 

 study wind, and any cover obtainable from the natural slopes of the 

 ground. It is a pretty little animal, wonderfully active over bad ground, 

 and sufficiently plentiful on its regular haunts to repay one for a day's 

 ramble after it. 



I left them alone for some seasons when in pursuit of other game, but 

 decided one year to have a turn at them during the interval between the 

 end of the rains and commencement of the bara-singh shooting. I worked 

 round to ground near Dalhousie, and found plenty of occupation with 

 them. 



Near camp a very round bare hill protruded into the valley. On this I 

 was assured I could shoot some ; so in the morning I started off, through 

 long grass dripping with the heavy dew, and had a very stiff climb for a 

 couple of hours before seeing any. My man at last spotted one in a very 

 awkward place below me ; it was on the other side of a narrow rift, but 

 so perpendicularly below that I could not aim while sitting on the slope. 

 I made a detour, and reached an overhanging rock by the friendly aid of 

 some young fir trees, from which I had a better view. The game was 

 still below me, but I could get no cover lower down, so crawled on to the 

 rock and peered over. Judging the distance to be 230 yards, I put up 

 the leaf for 200, and aimed for the shoulder ; when I fired he bolted a 

 short distance, and halted again, bewildered. I decided I must have fired 

 over him, and put down the leaf, reloaded, and took a careful aim. When 

 the smoke cleared he was gone ; so I sent my man down to where the 

 animal had been, and he shouted that he had fallen over the khud. So he 

 had, and was lying some 800 feet below in the bed of the torrent. It took 

 the native a long time to bring him up ; but I was glad to find I had hit 

 him on the right side and smashed him before he fell. The horns were 

 not large ; one being lost in the fall spoilt the head. 



After a rest, I went for a long clamber along the east side of the hill, 

 and found another above me. but missed him. It was another awkward 

 position to be in, firing up hill, standing on a very steep slope, and I could 

 not decide where my bullet went, but I think it was high. I got home 

 late, tired and weary. 



H 



