222 



Mountain Sheep. 



in perfect darkness, except for the starlight. On the last 

 day of our proposed stay the men had come in with the 

 ponies before sunrise ; and, leaving the latter in the cor- 

 ral, they entered the house and crowded round the fire, 

 stamping and beating their numbed hands together. In 

 the midst of the confusion word was brought by one of 

 the cowboys, that while hunting for the horses he had 

 seen two bears go down into a wash-out ; and he told us 

 that he could bring us right to the place where he had 

 seen them, for as soon as he left it he had come in at 

 speed on his swift, iron-gray horse a vicious, clean-limbed 

 devil, with muscles like bundles of tense wire ; the cold 

 had made the brute savage, and it had been punished with 

 the cruel curb bit until long, bloody icicles hung from 

 its lips. 



At once Merrifield and I mounted in hot haste, and 

 rode off with the bringer of good tidings, leaving hasty in- 

 structions where we were to be joined by the buck-board. 

 The sun was still just below the horizon as we started, 

 wrapped warmly in our fur coats and with our caps drawn 

 down over our ears to keep out the cold. The cattle were 

 standing in the thickets and sheltered ravines, huddled 

 together with their heads down, the frost lying on their 

 backs and the icicles hanging from their muzzles ; they 

 stared at us as we rode along, but were too cold to move 

 a hand's breadth out of our way ; indeed it is a marvel how 

 they survive the winter at all. Our course at first lay up 

 a long valley, cut up by cattle trails ; then we came out, 

 just as the sun had risen, upon the rounded, gently-sloping 

 highlands, thickly clad with the short, nutritious grass, 



