Among the High Hills 131 



by creeping along nearly on a level with him. Ac 

 cordingly we worked our way down through a big 

 cleft in the rocks, being forced to go very slowly 

 and carefully lest we should start a loose stone ; and 

 at last reached a narrow terrace of rock and grass 

 along which we walked comparatively at our ease. 

 Soon it dwindled away, and we then had to do our 

 only difficult piece of climbing a clamber for fifty 

 or sixty feet across a steep cliff shoulder. Some 

 little niches and cracks in the rock and a few pro 

 jections and diminutive ledges on its surface, barely 

 enabled us to swarm across, with painstaking care 

 not merely to avoid alarming the game this time, 

 but also to avoid a slip which would have proved 

 fatal. Once across we came on a long, grassy shelf, 

 leading round a shoulder into the cleft where the 

 ram lay. As I neared the end I crept forward on 

 hands and knees, and then crawled flat, shoving the 

 rifle ahead of me, until I rounded the shoulder and 

 peered into the rift. As my eyes fell on the ram he 

 sprang to his feet, with a clatter of loose stones, and 

 stood facing me, some sixty yards off, his dark face 

 and white muzzle brought out finely by the battered, 

 curved horns. I shot into his chest, hitting him in 

 the sticking place; and after a few mad bounds he 

 tumbled headlong, and fell a very great distance, 

 unfortunately injuring one horn. 



When much hunted, bighorn become the wariest 

 of all American game, and their chase is then pe- 



