4 IN KASHMIR. 



therefore requires no stalking, and very little 

 climbing. Meanwhile I had discovered what a 

 wonderful thing a grass - shoe l is, and when on 

 the third day we returned to the ibex - ground, 

 I felt as safe as a goat. 



After a blank morning, we sat down to eat the 

 breakfast we had brought up the mountain, and 

 as we rested the ckota, or small shikari, who had 

 been prospecting, came hurrying up to report a 

 herd of ibex. Off we went over the snow, and 

 soon came upon the herd lying in a large corrie. 

 At first I thought them unstalkable ; but as the 

 ground was well covered with rocks, I soon found 

 myself near enough for a shot. " Oh, sahib, do 

 not be in a hurry," was Rama's advice ; " your 

 hand is shaking : the ibex are all lying down, and 

 will not run away." Certainly it was a word in 

 season, for I was in a great state of what they 

 call in the Highlands "stag-fever." So I lay 

 quiet until one got up : of course he looked to 

 me the " biggest as ever was." I could resist no 

 longer, and loosed off at him ; in an instant he 

 and the rest had vanished ! 



1 The so-called grass-shoe is a sandal woven of a rope made of 

 rice-straw, and worn over a moccasin made of leather or thick 

 cloth. 



