The Antelope-Goat of the Pacific Slope. 99 



rock, which must have hit him, for I could distinctly perceive him 

 make a side jump. I was very nearly at my wind's and wits' end, 

 fagged out by my run, which, as I looked back, I saw covered very 

 nearly the whole semicircle of the ridge, and which, as I afterwards 

 found, was keenly watched with glasses by my friend and some of 

 the men from their camp, far down the mountain side. The worst 

 about it was that by this time I had only one cartridge left. Hunter 

 and hunted were approaching the end of the semicircular ridge, 

 where it fell off in one enormous precipice, a configuration of the 

 ground that, of course, would shortly terminate the chase, a 

 continuation being only feasible to winged creatures. The ram 

 was steering for a tooth-like crag, separated from the main ridge by 

 a profound abyss. Here, evidently, he felt himself secure, and as 

 I watched him sit down very leisurely to take in all the fun of my 

 defeat, very uncharitable sentiments escaped my parched and 

 breathless lips. A quarter of an hour's much needed breathing 

 spell gave me at this juncture a chance to survey the ground a little 

 more critically than I had hitherto done. It would have been folly 

 to risk my last cartridge at an impossible range. The old billy was 

 evidently feeling very much at home, and, as I could easily see with 

 my glasses, kept his gaze steadfastly fixed in my direction. 



The formation of the ground, as I presently discovered, 

 favoured the employment of the following ruse : Retiring 

 behind the top of the ridge, I took off my canvas jacket and 

 hat, dressed up a handy stone with these garments, and slowly 

 lifting it on the top of the ridge, deposited it there, in plain 

 sight of the watchful ram. Then I disappeared from his vision, 

 and made a long detour, including a disagreeable creep along 

 a ledge of shelving rock, in places only a foot or two in width, 

 with the object of getting round the great buttress of rock at 

 a considerably lower level, and so approach the ram from a 

 direction he little expected, to within one hundred and fifty 

 yards or so. It was an anxious minute as I lifted my head inch 

 by inch over a projecting ledge, and there, in plain view, saw 

 my game, his gaze still fixed upward at my dummy. For full 



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