NATURALIST IN INDIA. 229 



noise of falling masses of snow continued to iacrease, and 

 on looking up the gorge a vast avalanclie was seen bound- 

 ing down towards them. Bewildered by the rapidity with 

 which the huge mountain of snow seemed advancing, they 

 ran from one side to another ; but long before they could 

 gaia a place of safety, six of the party were buried in the 

 avalanche. The remainder, stationed a little higher on the 

 ridge, pushed upwards, and just escaped. The bodies were 

 found six weeks afterwards, and close to that of one of the 

 shickarees was a large ibex, which had been overwhelmed 

 at the same time. When I revisited this glen ia 1854, upon 

 the same wild rocky precipices I observed a herd of from 

 forty to fifty ibexes, the greater part feeding on a grassy 

 slope low down, but on such an exposed position that I could 

 not obtain a nearer approach than 200 yards. Although I 

 missed a fine old male, the loss was compensated by the 

 scene which followed, for scarcely had the echo of my rifle 

 died away before every pinnacle and jutting prominence among 

 , the beetling cliffs overhead was alive with ibexes gazing down 

 in wonder. One noble old patriarch, with great curving horns, 

 stood on the uppermost and most projecting point. He was 

 evidently the leader of the herd, for on satisfying himself of 

 the danger, his loud whistle resounded through the glen, and 

 as if by magic the multitude disappeared among the shattered 

 rocks. 



On the same occasion I proceeded to Assun, a wild secluded 

 forest-glen northwards of Pambur. As there were no handets 

 within many miles, it became necessary to reduce our estab- 

 lishment to the shickaree, two coolies, and a small tent, 

 which we pitched in the depth of a pine-wood at the upper 

 end of the valley, and close to a grass-clad slope running 

 towards some very rugged and precipitous cliffs, where herds 



