142 Sport and Life. 



impression of bizarre crudeness. Wherever we glance we see the 

 stratified bands of successive layers of differently coloured con- 

 glomerates, some of clay-like, others of pumice-like consistency. 

 Here stands one great isolated crag, 5ooft. or 6ooft. in height. The 

 next pinnacle of equally fantastic shape is half a mile off, yet it is 

 easy to see that every one of the six or eight various bands of 

 disintegrating rock, or the seams of oxides, silicates, sulphates, or 

 carbonates which are very plainly visible on the precipitous faces of 

 both, exactly correspond with each other, and that in both the 

 black, the brown, the pea-green, the purple, and the vermilion 

 streaks follow each other with the same regularity. These bands 

 being of different homogeneity offer not precisely the same 

 resistance to the denuding effects of rain and frost, and hence 

 narrow shelves are formed, that run generally horizontally, but 

 always parallel to each other across the precipitous face of the 

 peak or hill. Generally these ledges are not wider than a few feet ; 

 while in other places they will be broad, and rise tier-like from the 

 bottom. Notwithstanding the very scanty growth of grass so 

 scanty indeed as to be hardly perceptible to the eye these ledges 

 are, nevertheless, the favourite dwelling-places of our quarry, the 

 bighorn. Here, too, the stalker has a good chance of approaching 

 them unobserved from above. He must, however, to be able to 

 undertake this, possess a clear head, and not know what giddiness 

 is ; for often the ledges are very narrow, and the height of the 

 precipice stupendous. Many an enjoyable creep along such places 

 have I risked, and many a pleasant family still-life scene have I 

 watched in close proximity, scenes that were rudely disturbed, if 

 the paterfamilias happened to have good horns, by the crack of my 

 Express. In such localities it was not infrequently quite impossible 

 to save any of the meat, for often it was as much as I could do to 

 saw off the horns, and, tying a short cord to them, drag them behind 

 me as I crept back to safer ground. 



But let us now speak of the reality the bold and majestic ram, 

 standing motionless on yonder giddy shelf, showing in perfect 

 repose the classic outline of his noble head against the blue of the 



