1 62 THE OORIAL. 



The banks of the watercourse down which I had come being perpendicular, and the 

 place where the Oorial were lying being well above me and to my right, I could not possibly 

 obtain a shot without being fully exposed to view. On turning the corner therefore, I was 

 by no means surprised to see the Oorial spring to their feet at once. Before betaking them- 

 selves to flight, however, they stood a moment to gaze, and gave me time to select a fine 

 ram which stood with his broadside to me, and seemed to be the largest of the herd. He 

 fell to my shot, and the remainder disappeared among the rough ground before I had time 

 to insert a fresh cartridge, rapid as that operation is with a modern breechloader. My sur- 

 prise may be imagined, when, on going up to the fallen Oorial, I found that he was the big 

 one-horned ram of which I had heard ! One horn was broken off close to the base, the 

 other, which was nothing very wonderful after all, measured thirty-one inches in length by 

 ten and a quarter in circumference. I saw nothing more on the way back to camp, and next 

 day I had to give up shooting. 



