The Mountain Sheep 193 



behind, and naturally had to go back for him 

 when the stalk was over. You will have by this 

 time but a middling opinion of my common 

 sense ; but please bear in mind that Shoshone 

 Indians invariably hunt with horses, and that in 

 those days I was still too much one of the " guided " 

 to be equal to dictating to any Indian what trail 

 we should go, and in what manner we should hunt. 

 This entire hunt of 1888, from the distant Tetons 

 and the waters of Snake River over to the Wa- 

 shakie Needle and Owl Creek, is a tale of struggle 

 between ourselves and our red-skinned guides ; 

 we were beginning to know the mountains, to 

 crave exploration, to try the unbeaten path ; and 

 for an Indian (though you would never suspect it 

 until you suffered from it) the ?/;2beaten path is 

 the one that he never wishes to try and will do 

 all things to escape — even to deserting you and 

 going home. 



We hunters now set our legs to new laboring, 

 and presently were again weltering in sweat, and 

 could look down into a third valley similar to the 

 two we had so painfully quitted. Down at the 

 bottom of this new gash in the hills went a little 

 stream like all the others, and beyond bristled 

 interminably the knife-like intersections of the 



