THE WARDWAN BAG. 5 



" Lngga, sahib, you have hit him." 



Away we went as hard as we could over the 

 brow of the hill, and there, oh joy ! was my ibex, 

 and down too. " Wait, sahib, wait," was the 

 warning cry. I could not, but ran on towards 

 him, when to my horror up he got ; bang went 

 the second barrel, and missed ! The agony of 

 that moment, and the relief when he dropped 

 never to rise again ! Having, as I considered, 

 earned a rest, I proceeded back to Srinagar. 



My bag consisted now of one ibex (36-inch 

 horns), two musk-deer, and three bears. After 

 a week at Srinagar, I began to think this was not 

 much to swagger about ; so consulted Rama, and 

 was soon on the way back to the Wardwan, where, 

 finding that a man had just vacated the Crushnai 

 valley, quite the best nullah in the Wardwan dis- 

 trict, I popped in, and in a month shot half-a- 

 dozen ibex, and left a confirmed hill - shooter : 

 loafing in the Kashmir valley had now no charm 

 for me. 



My next expedition was to Pangi, where I was 

 first in the field, crossing over the Chini Pass 

 now forbidden as dangerous and secured the 

 Sechu nullah, since reserved by the Rajah of 

 Chumba. There fortune favoured me, getting 



