American Big Game in its Haunts 



satisfactory provided that if my man walked to 

 the right or left it meant that the game was 

 in either of these directions; if he walked away 

 from the mountain, it was lower down; if he ap- 

 proached the mountain, it was higher up. 



As Hunter, after reaching the valley and taking 

 a look with the glasses, began to walk away, I 

 knew that the sheep was below me, and I suddenly 

 came close upon the three, which had taken shelter 

 from the gale behind a large rock. Very fre- 

 quently sheep will remain behind with a wounded 

 companion ; especially is this so when it is a large 

 ram. Now, unfortunately, one of the smaller 

 rams got between me and the big one, and as I did 

 not want to kill the little fellow the big ram was 

 soon out of range. But he was too badly wounded 

 to go far over such grounds, and I soon stalked up 

 near, when I fired, breaking another leg, and then 

 ran up and finished him off. This ram carried a 

 very pretty head 13^^ inches around the butts and 

 3 6 J/4 inches along the curve, but unfortunately the 

 left horn was slightly broken at the tip. It was un- 

 doubtedly an old sheep, as his teeth, worn to the 

 gums, and the ten rings around his horns indicated. 



When a ram's constitution has been undermined 

 by the rutting season, the horns cease to grow, nor 

 do they begin again until the spring of the year 



202 



