502 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCE1TY, Vol. XI. 



On a former day I similarly got P. fimhriatus above Gundera. The men 

 said that these Een were often killed for their skins ; the method being, 

 to light large fires in the forest at n'ght, for they are mostly nocturnal ; the 

 blaze attracted them, and small shot did the rest. Both these T got at 8,0fi0 

 feet elevation. Arrived at the village, I heard that an old thar was in 

 the habit of frequenting the cliffs low down on the opposite hillside. Bhiku 

 and I went down to the top of the precipice below the village to have a look 

 for him, and we had not been watching for more than five minutes when we 

 saw the thar, a shaggy old fellow still in his winter coat, coming out from 

 behind a pine tree and moving down the rocks. He was 300 yards away, but 

 the Mannlicher was all thare, and hit him about midway on his side. He 

 slowly walked behind some rocks, and was seen no more. It was too late to 

 send men over, as the ground was almost impracticable even for hillmen ; 

 but next day two men retrieved him, dead, and with his face partly devoured 

 by a bear that had come upon him during the night. The horns were 11|? 

 inches, and thick, Having sent off the search-party for this thar, I crossed 

 through the fern-carpeted woods to the torrent, aud we climbed up the steep 

 and slippery cliffs, along the course of a cascade, clinging to tufts of grass or 

 fern, lifting ourselves by means of overhanging roots, getting just a partial 

 foothold in some cranny or on some tottering projection, with often sheer 

 chasms beneath us, certain death in case our hold gave way. We had seen 

 some thar on the cliffs the night before, and we took a line that would keep 

 us out of sight in case they were there still. After climbing slowly for about 

 two hours, we peered through some brushwood on a ledge, and saw three 

 thar, a male and two females, on the face of a steep shelving precipice some 

 200 yards distant across an impassable ravine. The thar moved just as I 

 pressed the trigger, and the shot went over his back. He turned and faced 

 me, as if to see whence might be this new strange sound, not quite that of a 

 falling rock, nor yet distinctly that of a smoke-compelling gun. The second 

 shot caught him just below the right eye, and passed out at the back of his 

 neck ; and down the precipice he went, in one terrific bound, quite eighty 

 yards, when he was stopped by some bushes on a led<?e. It is remarkable 

 how the horns of wild goats stand these tremendous falls ; they are very 

 seldom damaged, in spite of the crash on the rocks below. This was a smallish 

 thar, with thick horns, but only a little over eight inches in length. Having 

 recovered the slain and hidden the trophies in a tree, we went on, along the 

 worst lot of precipices I ever climbed among, but saw nothing more. It was, 

 however, a fine study in thar ground. All night it rained, hailed, lightened, 

 thundered, and blew. At 10 next day it was fine, but my shikari declared 

 that it would be too dangerous to go on the opposite cliffs after such a storm. 

 I reluctantly agreed that it would be better not to run the risk, and decided 

 to try easier ground, for gooral, instead. Accordingly, we started at 12, going 

 past the village, and up to a stately pine tree on a wind-swept ridge, where 



