IBEX-SHOOTING IN BALTISTAN 153 



of spirits. A long, busy day in camp followed, for 

 the heads and skins had to be cleaned and salted, 

 and if I had known then what was in store for the 

 morrow, I should not have begrudged the repose 

 which this afforded. 



Yet the first excitement of the hunt makes one 

 keen for more. News had already come from Perry 

 in the other section that his first stalk had brought 

 him two heads, and made me more eager than ever 

 to secure my six. In such a country as we had come 

 upon, this depended more on activity and accurate 

 shooting than on the mere hunting about for herds. 

 They were everywhere; the question was only to 

 stalk successfully. So delays were irksome. 



The 1st of June dawned as all days in that won- 

 derful country seem to dawn, in a flood of sunlight, 

 cloudless and crisply cold. But before the great 

 mountain at the valley's head had received the first 

 tints of morning we were crouched behind a spur of 

 the glacier and searching with the glasses the sur- 

 rounding heights. It was but a few moments before 

 a large herd was found far across, on the steep 

 mountain-side which rose to the north, and though 

 a full half-mile of serried glacier lay between, it 

 seemed advisable to undertake the work and make 

 our second stalk in country as yet undisturbed by 

 firing. 



