192 WANDEEINGS OF A ~ 



panthers, whilst we returned to the tent ; and next day the 

 half-starved natives of the village of Yenaur fared sumptu- 

 ously on venison. The secretion of the infra-orbital opening is 

 much prized as a remedy for almost all diseases. The largest 

 of the deer measured 13 hands at the shoulder. Young 

 added a she-bear to our day's bag, and seldom a day passed' 

 but one or other was fortunate in some way. I killed another 

 stag on the morning of the 28th of April, after a long and 

 excitiug stalk across -the slippery sides of a very precipitous 

 mountain. It is wonderful how the excitement of the chase 

 carries one over dangerous and difi&cult places ; a break-neck 

 sort of indifference seizes you; you rush on regardless of 

 obstacles, which in cooler moments might cause considerable 

 concern. With the rifle in one hand and pole in the other, the 

 prospect of an ibex before him, where is the hunter that 

 would hesitate at any common obstacle ? Mayhap these lines 

 may sometime catch the eye of a Himalayan hunter, and if so, 

 let me bring to his remembrance that significant signal, like 

 the tapping of the woodpecker on the trunk of the pine-tree, 

 used by the Himalayan shickaree to draw his attention when 

 a whisper would attract the game. No noise is better suited, 

 for beyond the woodpecker's tap and the " wailing of the 

 forest," there is oft no other sound that breaks the stillness of 

 these alpine solitudes. 



Our tent was moved from village to village whilst we ex- 

 plored the mountain slopes on the right and left, departing at 

 an early hour in the morning to return at dusk. During mid- 

 day when the game sought the shelter of the forest, my time 

 was usually employed in wandering through the woods in 

 quest of birds. Sometimes when perched on a projecting cUff 

 I have been so overcome by the magnificent beauty and 

 grandeur of the scene around me, that, lost in admiration, I 



