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THE OORIAL. 



IR: The Oorial — pronouTiced by natives to European ears Ooviar— wild sheep 

 ibex, deer, or whatever it may be, with the exception of a few panthers, is 

 the only largre game to be found on the whole length of the line Salt llange Moun- 

 tains in the Punjab. Just on the Hanks of the hills, however, the small Chinkara 

 antelope abounds, called here generally the ravine deer, and I think I have seen 

 one in some rather open ground high up on the hills. 



The Oorial are most diffioult to approach, possessing all the keen watchfulness of 

 the deer tribe, and their acute sense of smell . They descend at night from their 

 retired glens to feed upon the wheat and other crops, returning before daylight, 

 shortly after which time they may be found slowly moving upwards on the least 

 frequented parts of the hills, such as those reserved bj' Government to promote the 

 growth of timber. 



Notwithstanding that they must frequently he disturbed by goatherds, they 

 appear to aii'eet certain spots near which, at particular times of the day, they may 

 generally be found. They avoid j ungle, preferring the barest places, and are partial 

 to places where the ground and neighbourhood are of a reddish colour from the 

 wasting of red rocks. 



^Vhen startled, they do not go very far, but being on the qui vi'-e, are hard 

 to stalk, their metliod being to canter quickly across the glens or hollows, and hang 

 about the highest and most exposed places, where they wiU sometimes stind 

 watching one at a safe distance for half an hour. The walking on these hills is 

 particularly bad, the hard red ground inclining at a steep angle, sheeted with 

 fragments which give way beneath the feet, so that silence cannot be maintained 

 with even extra caution ; still, the animals seem to miud sound less than sight ; but 

 when they both see and " wind " the sportsman, he may take leave of his chance of 

 a shot, and should he find himself near the game by any chance unawares, he will 

 hear an angry staup of the toot, and a sharp spitting sound, and olf goes the whole 

 tohih: taking the ground just as it comes, whether broken or not, all short of 

 absolute vertical clili's being traversed by them with the most perfect indifference. 



One or two herds may be seen in a morning ; later in the day it is very rare to 

 find them, as they get into most unapproachable places, and lie down in the shade 

 usually, however, keeping a sentry on the look-out. 



They stand nearly as high as the fallow deer at home, and are said to weigh 

 sometimes SOlb. The old bucks are very fine-looking beasts, with a strong dark 

 fringe of hair down their throats and chests, and a beard like a goat's. I send you 

 a sketch of the head of one I shot this morning, taken as he lay immediately after- 

 wards. It had no beard, but the dark fringe above mentioned strongly developed, 

 and, to judg-e by the teeth, was about four years old ; the horns measured sixteen 

 inches on the curve, and eight inches round the base. 



I had just ascended from the plains to the south of the range by a narrow gully, 

 ending in and bounded by vertical cliffs. From the point where the stream fell 

 over these, a further ascent of a couple of hundred feet on the sloping face of a 

 rock brought us into a place said to be a resort of von'ar, and one was shortly seen. 

 Leaving the guide and gunbearer behind, a 



stalk was efteetcd, the animals being in a hoi- . , 



low spot, and on arriving as close as fifty 

 yards, they had not detected me. One (whose 

 likeness I enclose) was directly in front, his 

 lower half concealed by the ground, and, 

 indeed, not being at all favourably exposed. 

 A hollow bullet from my " express," by Lang, 

 however, found him, and he fell in his tracks. 

 An Indian peewit ? Some relative to your 

 correspondent's green plover keeps screaming 

 "Why did you do it?" close by my tent, so, 

 lest I should wander into the morality of 

 field sports, I shall close this, regretting that, 

 though I have written so much, 1 have told 

 you so little of oorial shooting. 



Punjab, March 25, 1870. Bexvawx, 



THE OORIAL. 



