120 
MY ?'IRST IBEX, 
and the shikarie declared he could smell the ibex. Presently 
he stopped and pointed ; I took a step forward and saw a 
doe ibex feeding about sixty yards below ; as she turned and 
exposed her side, I fired, saw the ball strike and I gave her 
the contents of the other barrel as she dashed away, but 
soon she fell over and in her struggles rolled down a preci- 
pice full eighty feet in height ; I found her quite dead at the 
bottom, a fine beast with good horns. After cutting ofif her 
head I went down to Brine who was 
waiting for us below, and after stopping 
there some time proceeded to watch for 
sambur, the shikaries going up to the top 
of a high hill. We had not waited long 
when we saw three ibex come over a 
hill some distance away \ one a large 
buck standing on the sky line looking out. As soon as 
they had all disappeared I started to stalk them with Brine s 
shikarie, who had come down from the hill, but they had not 
waited for us. 
Meanwhile Brine had moved from where we had left 
him and we saw him stalking four ibex, all apparently very 
large bucks ; however, it turned out that he had not seen 
these large ones, but only the outward sentinel above, a 
female, which he stalked to within sixteen paces and put a 
ball through her head ; she rolled over and over down the 
hill, the remainder of the herd, nine in number dashing away, 
his second bullet scattering the dust over some of them ; they 
came along the rocks over w^hich I had been stalking and by 
running round under the shoulder of the hill I crept over 
the top just as they were all passing some seventy yards 
below me ; I fired at the biggest looking buck at the 
