THE HIMALAYAN IBEX. 



149 



when my second bullet crashed through his ribs ; he made a spring or two, and again stood still ; 

 I took my other rifle and dropped him with a bullet through the neck. As he struggled 

 towards the edge of the precipice, my Shikari, Sadik, seized him by the horns and called 

 to me for assistance. I ran up and caught hold just in time to prevent the buck from going 

 over, and held him fast while Sadik cut his throat. We now looked for the first one, who 

 had managed to stagger to his feet, and then roll over the precipice. To my satisfaction 

 we saw it lying on the snow by the river's edge far below us ; had it rolled another yard it 

 would have been swept away by the torrent. As it was, it must have fallen a sheer three 

 hundred feet without touching anything, but fortunately the horns were uninjured. Sadik 

 climbed down by a roundabout way and cut off the head. The horns (those photographed) 

 measured forty-three and a half inches ; the other pair measured forty-one inches. On my 

 way back to camp I met an officer coming up to shoot, and as I was anxious to press on to 

 Ladak, I resigned the shooting in the valley to him. 



As I was bent upon securing as many different varieties of ' Large Game' as possible, I 

 did not devote myself much to Ibex shooting for several years, and, although I shot a few 

 in the interim, it was not till 1870 that I again spent much time in Ibex country. 



In May of that year I crossed the Cheni Pass into Pangi, accompanied by my wife and 

 A, a brother officer. 



According to custom A and I had separated for about a fortnight, and our camps had, 

 during that time, been many miles apart. On meeting at the appointed rendezvous we talked 

 over all we had done, and formed plans for the future. I had had excellent sport, having 

 bagged several fine Ibex, while A, who was quite a novice at the work, had not been success- 

 ful, but was still most anxious to secure a fine pair of horns. From A's own account it 

 was pretty clear that his ill-success might be attributed to his want of experience and ignor- 

 ance of the native language, which prevented him from understanding his Shikari. 



I therefore proposed that he should go out with me, the arrangement being that he was 

 to have first shot. To this he agreed, and having heard of a very likely hill, we moved camp, 

 crossed the river, and after ascending the opposite hill for about a mile, pitched our tents 

 under the shelter of some pine trees on the banks of a mountain torrent. 



Behind our tents rose a high steep hill, covered with short grass to its summit, but so 

 smooth and open that it did not appear at all probable that it was a favorite haunt of the 

 Ibex. At the back of this hill, however, we were assured, that there was a rocky valley, which 

 was nearly a sure find, and we accordingly resolved to explore it next day. 



Before daylight we were up and dressed, and after the welcome cup of tea, which one 

 never enjoys so much as in camp, we commenced the ascent of the hill. Nothing is so 

 monotonous or fatiguing as climbing a long hill, whose summit one can see from the base : 

 the task appears nearly hopeless from the first ; the progress one makes seems to be so 

 terribly slow ; there are no breaks in the dull sameness of the journey, no conspicuous marks 

 by which one's brief halts for breathing time may be judiciously arranged; no hope of; 

 possibly coming upon game. However, all things come to an end, and after steadily plodding 

 along for nearly three hours, we reached the crest of the ridge, threw ourselves on the ground, 



