American Big Game in its Haunts 



head not worth shooting, but as his mate followed, 

 we could see at a glance that his horns made the 

 full turn, and were well up to the standard that 

 I had set. 



The smaller one soon wandered down the hill 

 to our left, but the old fellow was more wary, and 

 kept to the rocky summit. We gradually worked 

 nearer and nearer as his head was turned, or as he 

 slowly fed behind some rocks. In this way we had 

 almost reached a dip in the hillside which would 

 hide us from view until I could approach near 

 enough for a shot, when the ram suddenly ap- 

 peared on the sky-line above. We both crouched 

 to the ground and kept perfectly still, while he 

 stood in bold relief against the clouds intently gaz- 

 ing in all directions. For almost a half hour he 

 never moved, except to slowly turn his head. It 

 was evident that he was restless, and missed his 

 young companion which had wandered away. 

 Then he gradually moved off and sank behind a 

 rock, and as Hunter and I had seen his hindquar- 

 ters disappear last, we knew he was lying down, 

 for a sheep goes down on his front knees first. 

 This was our chance, and we hastened to take ad- 

 vantage of it. In fact, Hunter had crossed the last 

 open and I was half way over, when the ram sud- 

 denly appeared again on the crest of the hill, and 



214 



