While soaring in the air--all his four feet raised high off the ground--the huge horns of his adversary were impelled with fearful force against his ribs, the stroke tossing him like a shuttlecock clear over the edge of the cliff! The blow had been delivered so as to project his body with a revolving impetus into the air; and turning round and round, it fell with a heavy concussion into the bottom of the valley; where, after rebounding full six feet from the ground, it fell back again dead as a stone.
It was some seconds before the spectators could recover from surprise at an incident so curious, though it was one that may often be witnessed by those who wander among the wild crags of the Himalayas--where combats between the males of the ibex, the tahir, the burrell or Himalayan wild sheep, and also the rams of the gigantic _Ovis ammon_, are of common occurrence.
These battles are often fought upon the edge of a beetling precipice-- for it is in such places that these four species of animals delight to dwell--and not unfrequently the issue of the contest is such as that witnessed by our adventurers--one of the combatants being "butted" or pushed right over the cliff.
It does not follow that the animal thus put _hors de combat_ is always killed.

On the contrary, unless the precipice be one of stupendous height, an ibex, or tahir, or burrell, will get up again after one of those fearful falls; and either run or limp away from the spot--perhaps to recover, and try his luck and strength in some future encounter with the same adversary.

One of the most remarkable instances of this kind is related by the intelligent sportsman, Colonel Markham, and by him vouched for as a fact that came under his own observation.

We copy his account verbatim:-- "I witnessed one of the most extraordinary feats performed by an old tahir, that I, or any other man, ever beheld.

I shot him when about eighty yards overhead upon a ledge of rocks.