152 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



Another was still in sight far up the cliff, scram- 

 bling, slipping, leaping. I took the express and 

 fired again, but it was a hard shot. The second 

 barrel caught him amidships as he reached the 

 level, and he made off, badly wounded. 



The result of this first shot was not all that could 

 be desired, since of my three animals only one lay 

 dead, and it was impossible to say how far the 

 others might go before they dropped. Following a 

 newly wounded ibex through the mountains is use- 

 less, for he will quickly distance the hunter and 

 make for some inaccessible cliff before resting ; but 

 if allowed to go unwatched, the chances are in favor 

 of his soon lying down in a place whither he may 

 later be tracked. Accordingly we skinned the dead 

 one, reaching the body by a difficult descent over 

 the slipping shale, and finding his horns to measure 

 but thirty inches, the minimum size a sportsman 

 should shoot, returned in a rather unsatisfactory 

 frame of mind to camp. 



But the first discouragement was not to last. 

 With a local guide, the wounded animals were 

 tracked before daylight on the following morning, 

 and before long both were found quite dead, the 

 heads measuring respectively forty and thirty-nine 

 inches, which quickly cleared away all doubts as to 

 the success of the first stalk, and put me in the best 



