something. I now pushed up to them. One immediately showed fight, and
came out to meet me. He made one charge at me, which I received with a
rifle ball, killing him the very first shot. The other bear got away.
On going up to the spot where they had been at work, I found the
exhumed bodies of three wild sheep. They had been carried away and
buried underneath the avalanche, probably as far back as the previous
year, considering the very compact and frozen state the snow was in.
The sheep were in excellent order. We skinned them, and took them to
our tents, and excellent mutton we all had for several days.

On the melting of the snows, the golden eagle of the Himalaya--a
magnificent bird, often measuring thirteen feet from the tip of one
wing to the other--is one of the best of pointers a sportsman can
follow, to ascertain where any animal has been carried away in an
avalanche. He hovers over the spot, constantly alighting, and then
taking wing again; but if once you observe him pecking with his beak
you may proceed to the spot, and be certain of finding, a very short
distance below the snow, the carcass of a wild sheep, as fresh as it
was on the day on which it was carried away. Many a haunch of good
mutton have I obtained in this way.

The Himalayan golden eagle is a very carrion crow, never destroying
its own game, and feeding on any dead carcass it may find,

Many an eagle have I shot feeding on the carcass of an unfortunate
hill bullock, which, either through stupidity or fright, had tumbled
over a precipice; and never, during the many years I shot over all
parts of these hills, do I remember seeing a golden eagle pounce on or
carry away a living prey.