THREE HARDY MOUNTAINEERS 239 



clotlies, thick, easy shoes, or moccasins, bring a pair of 

 skees apiece, and be prepared for climbing np hill for 

 miles and sleeping out doors many nights." 



" What are skees ? " asked Nat. 



" They are foot gear ; an Old-World invention, half 

 skate, half snow-shoe, like a pair of small foot-tobog- 

 gans, that Rocky Mountain hunters use in icy weather." 



'' Then these ' big game ' animals live 'way out Avest 

 in tlie Rocky ^Mountains ! I knt)w those mountains," 

 said Dodo ; " they hump up all tlie Avay from Alaska 

 down to Mexico. But people need not walk ; coukbrt 

 they go there by train, daddy ? " 



" You can go for a week or more l)y train. Then at 

 the end of a week of horseback riding and walking 

 mixed, you will be lucky if you see the plump, round 

 body, and the great curved horns that give the name 

 of Bighorn to this Mountain Sheep, the shyest of all 

 our fourfoots. 



" Some day, if I do not grow too old and stiff, and 

 if the wasteful Wolf Hunters have not dragged dyna- 

 mite guns up the mountains and bombarded them all 

 out, I hope to take Nat to see this Bighorn and the 

 Mountain Goat at home. For to-night you must be 

 content with a story." 



'' The big Bear, does he live as far up and away as 

 the others ? " 



" He lives in and also below their ranges, but nowa- 

 days one must usually look much further for a Grizzly, 

 such as the one who is peering at the Bighorn in the 

 picture, than for either the Sheep or Goats. The 

 Grizzly is a flesh eater, with an enormous appetite for 

 everything else eatable — 'from wild berries to hone}^- 



