THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
a steep grass slope are not easy to come up with, and the one or two big 
heads amongst them may be rendered quite unapproachable on account 
of the distribution of their companions. Early morning is the time to 
find them. The slanting light then shows them up quite well, even on 
the shale slopes, while on the grass they stand out clearly. This is a great 
advantage, for the hunter is enabled to determine whether the quarry is 
worth the trouble of a long and arduous climb. Gamp is probably pitched 
in a valley bottom, amongst the forest, and the game has been sighted far 
away up on the grass slopes above the limit of trees, perhaps 3,000 feet above 
the hunter. It is therefore of paramount importance to know that you are 
certain of no disappointment on getting within range by finding no big head 
amongst them. A telescope is an essential part of one’s hunting kit 
in these mountains with extensive views. Having sighted a herd and de- 
termined that it is worth a stalk, the next hour or two is spent in tediously 
climbing, on mountain pony or on foot, to some point of vantage above the 
herd. This is the first principle of success in ibex hunting: get above your 
beasts and you can do almost anything. Their sense of smell is not so 
acute as their eyesight. They will pick up an enemy below them with 
amazing alacrity, but from above, especially if it is the ground which 
they have recently left, they expect no foe and apparently do not even 
take the precaution of watching for one. 
As a proof of this, I can instance a stalk I once made. A herd of ibex 
had been sighted from below; they were some 1,500 feet above me, moving 
down from a shale ridge into a huge grassy slope. I left my hunter and 
horses and stalked up a gully on to the shale at the point where they left 
it. On arrival I found thirty-two ibex scattered over the grass slightly 
beyond, but below me. Some were feeding, others were lying down, for 
there is so much grass that there is none of the hard concentration on 
getting breakfast such as one finds elsewhere amongst less lucky game. 
Without difficulty I dragged myself on my chest across the intervening 
space, most of the time within full view of at least half the herd, until I 
was sixty yards from the nearest. I had the whole thirty-two within 
view and within 150 yards of me, and I was within view of them if 
they cared to look at me. There I lay watching the magnificent sight of 
these perfect types of mountain game, feeding, sleeping, playing, and 
fighting, on the smooth grass slope below. 
Quite early in the day the ibex move up into the rocks or the smooth 
shale slopes. On the latter they are quite unapproachable and may as well 
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