Mountain Sheep. 2 39 



buck-board. A very few minutes sufficed to pack up 

 our bedding and provisions, and we started home. 

 Merrifield and I rode on ahead, not sparing the horses ; 

 but before we got home the storm had burst, and a 

 furious blizzard blew in our teeth as we galloped along 

 the last mile of the river bottom, before coming to the 

 home ranch house ; and as we warmed our stiffened 

 limbs before the log fire, I congratulated myself upon 

 the successful outcome of what I knew would be the 

 last hunting trip I should take during that season. 



The death of this ram was accomplished without 

 calling for any very good shooting on our part. He 

 was standing still, less than a hundred yards off, when 

 the shot was fired; and we came across him so close 

 merely by accident. Still, we fairly deserved our luck, 

 for we had hunted with the most patient and pains- 

 taking care from dawn till nightfall for the better part 

 of three days, spending most of the time in climbing 

 at a smart rate of speed up sheer cliffs and over rough 

 and slippery ground. Still-hunting the big-horn is always 

 a toilsome and laborious task, and the very bitter 

 weather during which we had been out had not lessened 

 the difficulty of the work, though in the cold it was 

 much less exhausting than it would have been to have 

 hunted across the same ground in summer. No other 

 kind of hunting does as much to bring out the good 

 qualities, both moral and physical, of the sportsmen 

 who follow it. If a man keeps at it, it is bound to make 

 him both hardy and resolute ; to strengthen his muscles 

 and fill out his lungs. 



