THE HIMALAYAN IBEX. 1 47 



The first time I ever hunted for Ibex was in June 1861, when on my way to Ladak 

 I stopped at the small village of Kiilan, in the Sindh Valley. Having secured the services 

 of a village Shikari, I crossed to the left bank of the stream, and ascended the mountain. 

 For a long distance the path led through forest, the trees composing which changed in 

 character as we got higher, until we at length emerged from the birch forest and found 

 ourselves in an open grassy valley in which herds of sheep and goats were feeding. This 

 valley was enclosed on both sides and at the upper end by high rocky peaks, which were still 

 well covered with snow. A glacier blocked the head of the valley, and from this icy source a 

 small stream took its rise. My Shikari assured me that Ibex were to be found here. It was 

 pretty late in the afternoon when we reached the place, and having already had a long climb 

 we selected a spot for a bivouac, and merely took a short stroll in the evening, seeing nothing 

 but a Bara Sing Stag. 



Before daylight next morning I unwillingly enough left my comfortable blankets and 

 began to mount the snowy ridge above us. We soon found tracks of Ibex, but only saw 

 an old Bear and her cubs, who were, of course, allowed to remain in peace. Reaching the 

 summit of the ridge, we carefully looked over, and soon discovered the horns of a fine male 

 Ibex about four hundred yards off. As we were watching him we observed the remainder 

 of the herd coming up a hollow straight towards us, so I lay quiet until they fed up to us. 

 First, a female and her kid appeared, then two or three young males, but I waited for an 

 old one. At last, however, a provoking young male jumped on to a rock and looked down 

 on us, so I was obliged to fire, and knocked him over. The herd now stood to gaze, but 

 the villager with my second rifle becoming excited, ran on with it. I had to follow him, 

 seize my rifle, and fire a hurried shot, which I accordingly missed. The dead Ibex had 

 meanwhile rolled down the hill a .considerable distance into a ravine half full of snow, to 

 which I had some difficulty in descending. I found that he had horns only about twenty 

 inches in length, but as it was my first essay in Ibex shooting, I was tolerably pleased at 

 having bagged a buck, my first shot. Having skinned him, we proceeded to explore another 

 part of the hill, and saw some more Ibex, but in perfectly inaccessible places, and, as I had 

 promised to meet a friend at Kiilan, I returned to that village. 



In 1862, I made straight for Ibex ground. Passing through Islamabad I crossed the 

 Margan Pass into the Wardwan Valley on the 7th of May. Fresh snow had just fallen, and 

 the whole of my party suffered more or less from snow blindness. My own face was blistered 

 all over, and my eyes were very painful for two or three days. Perhaps this interfered 

 with my shooting ; at any rate, I succeeded in missing or only wounding several Bears at 

 which I had shots on my way up the Fariabad river, which joins the' Wardwan at Maru. 

 At length, on the 17th, my luck seemed to change, and I bagged two splendid Snow Bears 

 and two Ibex, but the latter were only small ones. During the next week I did not do much, 

 only bagging a couple of immense Bears and a small buck Ibex, the latter by a 'fluke'; fori 

 fired at a larger one who was standing alongside him. On the 23rd, I saw a herd of Ibex 

 close to camp, but after a climb I only got a long shot as they were moving off, and missed.- 



Not long afterwards I saw a magnificent old male crossing some snow far above us ; I 



