124 
Michael's luck. 
rather blown, missed htm clean. I ran forward and saw 
him standing at the corner of a rock but I was too late ; 
as I pulled the trigger he disappeared and I heard the ball 
strike the rock, and there was an end of it. 
THE OLD SADDLE-BACK. 
One morning in October, 1856, I went with Michael 
to Codaka-Mullay, a well-known ibex hill; we had to take 
a rope to help us to scale the almost perpendicular preci- 
pices so as to reach the upper plateau. At one part we were 
stopped by a ledge which overhung the rock, but working 
round and with the help of the rope, we eventually gained 
the plateau. We soon came upon the tracks of our game, 
and at the further end we saw an ibex lying down on some 
rocks. I think he saw us, but as he did not appear to be 
alarmed, Michael slid down under cover of the grass till he 
got within a hundred yards — his ball struck just too low. 
