CHAPTER XXVII 
AN AFTERNOON WITH ARIEL AND IBEX 
(Sarrowit) 
One afternoon (April 9th) we had set out, Lowe and I, 
with the special object of securing two first-class ariel 
bucks for my collection. Several herds were sighted 
—some were obviously inaccessible; others proved to 
be so. Then, after a series of complex and interesting 
manoeuvres, we “got in” to a troop of about sixty 
paused on a sombre shale-slope, and of three good 
bucks that stood separate, I secured what appeared to 
be the best at an estimated range of 275 yards. / 
An hour later, a great black jebel rose on our/front, 
and Lowe thought he detected game on its hither face. 
A prolonged scrutiny with the glass satisfied both of us 
absolutely that the suspected objects were merely the 
jagged tips of uptilted rocks catching the last rays of a 
sinking sun. I am convinced that there was no mistake 
about that. At the same time we both realised that 
the lowering sun, drooping beyond the hill, was producing 
strange and illusive colour - effects. Those crude black 
iron-stone rocks seemed to melt into a glowing mass of 
molten alabaster, with a haze of liquid false-light inter¬ 
posed between it and ourselves. Being satisfied that the 
hill was untenanted, we continued advancing across open 
slopes diagonally towards it. Upon arriving within some 
300 yards, however, a slight movement simultaneously 
caught our eyes, and a second survey from this point 
showed that, after all, the hill was actually full of game! 
An optical illusion more extraordinary than that which 
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