220 WANDERINGS OF A 



abundance in fields. The poor and rich as usual crowded 

 round my tent, many of the latter suffering from diseases 

 quite remediable, but time would not allow, and my stock of 

 medicine was already reduced to a few simples. It is sad to 

 see so much misery and wretchedness in a land second to none 

 in its natural capabilities ; but it is of no use that the husband- 

 man toils to make provision for the future ; as soon as fortune 

 is seen to smile on him, the hand of the extortioner seiiies his 

 little gains, and thus he is driven to rear only sufficient for 

 his immediate wants. We soon learned when the tax-gatherer 

 was going his rounds by the heaps of grain in the villages, 

 and the groans of discontent to be heard issuing from the 

 houses. 



The strange-looking goat-antelope {Capricornis hibalind), 

 known by the name "ramoo'' in Cashmere, and "serou" 

 in other districts of the western Himalaya, is perhaps the 

 rarest of the wild ruminants. Occasionally the sportsman 

 comes across an individual in the depths of the alpine forests, 

 but the animal is very solitary in its habits, and seldom more 

 than a couple are seen together. Both in figure and move- 

 ments the serou is perhaps one of the most ungainly of its 

 tribe, and so stupid is it that when come on unawares it will 

 stand and gaze at the intruder : even the report of a rifle seldom 

 scares it. It is fond of rocky ledges covered with pine and 

 forest trees in secluded mountain valleys ; here one may 

 reside for years, going or returning to its feeding-grounds by 

 the same path, which is marked like that of the musk-deer 

 by heaps of dung. The serou has the legs of a goat, the horns 

 of an " antelope : " its general appearance is bovine ; whilst the 

 long stiff bristles on its back, and general shape of the head, are 

 decidedly porcine ; — a sort of nondescript beast, which Euro- 

 pean sportsmen often call a " very extraordinary-looking ani- 



