ROOK NOTICE. : 193 
and where, oh! where is the beard, ‘‘ from six to eight inches long?” As for the 
understandings of the figures in the book they are truly a libel on the sturdy limbs 
of this the gamest of mountain animals. Thosespindle shanks would snap like pipe- 
stems, if they were used as I have seen the ibex use his legs while jumping from 
rock to rock in his mad career. 
The ibex is the pleasantest animal to hunt that I know of within the limits 
of Kashmir. More real pleasure has been experienced in the pursuit after him than 
of all the rest put together. Markhor takes it out of you in a very short time; 
after you have secured a reasonable trophy you are apt td ery, “ hold enough ;” 
But the ibex is a gentleman in his manners and customs, as compared with his 
spiral horned cousin lower down on the mountain ; and he gives you all the chances 
that a gentlemanly-minded animal should give to an honest foe. He is neverthe- 
less “ All there ’when treading his ancestral hills, and after you have circumvent- 
ed him, you feel that he has been a worthy opponent. 
The most wide-awake animal in creation is certainly the female ibex, and she 
seems to exercise her vigilance solely for the benefit of the ungrateful male of her 
kind, who is by no means so watchful ; in fact, if he is old and lazy, he keeps no 
look-out at all, after having comfortably laid himself up for the day. That duty 
falls to his compact little companion, and admirably she performs it. Uncomfort- 
ably perched of a jutting rock far above the rest of the flock, who are securely 
snoozing below on some soft patch of level or gently sloping ground, the sportsman’s 
powerful telescope has watched her hour after hour lying motionless on her rocky 
bed, scanning untiringly, to the right and to the left and straight down before her, 
the mountain sides for miles and miles. The patient native of Kashmir 
is used to her sentry duty, and after taking in the situation, he too falls asleep like 
the bearded males, he is trying to circumvent, aud waits patiently for a chance, but 
the hot-blooded Saxon, boiling over with energy and impatience, 1s fuming and 
swearing at one moment; and at the next watching the little animal through his 
glasses. The ease isa perfectly hopeless one, there is no approach nearer than a 
thousand yards, without instant detection, for several hours to come at any rate ; 
and the bad language that contaminates the pure mountain air in that locality is 
truly awful! How often have I resolved in these moments of desperation to shoot 
that one female in particular, and allow the long-horned careless one sleeping just 
beyond range, to go in peace just for the satisfaction of the thing. That feeling 
has come to more persons than myself, I am sure, when they have been similarly 
placed. The female ibex is the béte noir of the sportsman ; she has spoiled many 
acareful stalk, and at other times has foreed him to trudge many and many a weary 
wile to escape her all-seeing eye : when, if she had been absent, a walk of a few 
hundred yards would have placed him for his shot. : : 
The report of the rifle is so similar to noises in these elevated regions that ibex 
are little alarmed by the crack of the weapon. “Walling rock,’ or ‘‘ thunder’ 
is the first idea that occurs to them when the sound reaches their 
first start is to get out of the way of those familiar dangers. When a good stalk 
ig made and the sportsman has his wits about him, several shots can almost always 
rare when three or four animals have been 
ears, and_ their 
be obtained, and instances are not 
bagged at one stalk. The ground, too, in general is so favourable that the stalker 
can get within yery short range , always providing, that the sharp-sighted female 
