THE 00R1AL, 323 



and three females lying under the shade of a large rock 400 yards 

 below me, but, as there was.no way of getting near them, I sat down 

 and waited for them to move, occasionally peeping over the ridge to see 

 what they were about. It being the middle of the day, I did not ex- 

 pect them to move for some time and was lying down, when I heard 

 a rattle of stones, and a female topped the ridge within a few yards of 

 me, saw me, and bolted. I made for my rifle which was lying a short 

 way off. Another female followed the first, and a tremendous clatter of 

 stones on the other side of the ridge greeted me as I reached the top. 

 There was the ram and the remaining female galloping away along the 

 hillside not more than 60 yards off. The rest is too painful to recall, 

 suffice it to say that the ram's head, a remarkably fine one, is not in 

 my collection. Early one morning I saw a single ram standing on 

 the sky-line of a ridge of hills,*and, making a long round, got to the 

 spot and was standing on a rock looking about for him, when he 

 suddenly started from under my feet ; he was lying under the very 

 stone I was standing on and went down the hill at a great pace. I 

 missed him. Yet another day the fates were against me. I had been 

 watching a ram by himself for some time, when he began to walk 

 towards a gap in the hills. I hastened down to it to intercept him, and 

 as I got to the far side of the gap, I heard the stones rattling as he 

 came along about 100 yards off; on he came till he was within ten yards 

 of me, though of course, I could not see him as he was the other side 

 of the ridge, when a puff of wind blew through the gap in the wrong 

 direction and he turned and fled. I rushed to the top of the ridge ; 

 he had stopped for a moment and presented an easy shot. My 

 cartridge missed fire. 



In most shikar stories " what is hit is history, what is missed is mys- 

 tery." I have in this paper reversed the saying and refrain from 

 expatiating on the successful days that fall to the lot of every one 

 who perseveres and which fully compensate for the toil of many a 

 blank day. The photograph was one of my early efforts in that line, 

 and is by no means a good one. The head is fairly good, 26 inches 

 long. Like all wild sheep the coat is of coarse hair. I find in Eng- 

 land that people are generally under the impression, when you point 

 to a head as that of a wild sheep, that you have massacred a woolly 

 animal of a confiding disposition, whereas all wild sheep have the skin 

 of a deer and are quite able to take care of themselves, A distinguish- 

 is 



