THE OLD BUCK OF KODAKARNAL. T3I 
I have so often abused, did me good service now, enabling 
me to get down the steep slope and under the cover of an 
intervening spur without disturbing the ibex. With both 
barrels of my old Ross on full cock I noiselessly mounted 
the ridge, and as I craned over it, almost at my feet I 
saw his horns and then his head- I moved half a step 
forward to uncover his body, but he saw me and was 
down out of sight in a second. I dashed forward and 
saw him making tracks some thirty yards below me. I 
was just going to fire, w^hen he pulled up for a moment, 
and then I pulled the trigger and a bullet from the true and 
faithful old rii]e went crashing through his shoulders ; he 
tried to dash awayj but toppled over a rocky precipice and 
disappeared in the mist. But where ? Fortunately there was 
a long slope before coming to the final precipice, but so very 
steep that he could scarcely have stopped there unless the 
lemon grass and fern, which is very thick, had held him. 
Peering through the mist we could make nothing of it, but 
when it cleared a little, I could see his track for some dis- 
tance down. As. there was plenty of grass to hold on by, we 
cautiously descended, and at the bottom of the slope there he 
was, stone dead. 
Thus died, as I supposed, the old saddle back of Koda- 
karnal ! Daniel (the boy) says he has known him for eight 
years, and *' no gentleman never could shoot him." We 
brought up- his head, though I did not half like the scramble 
up the steep wet slope with my rifle in one hand, for a shp 
backwards would have caused ine to reach the low country 
sooner and quicker than I ever intended. 
The boys next day went down and brought home 
the skin and meat To my great disappointment Daniel 
