THE WILD SHEEP 313 



tumultuous roar of the water, advanced deliberately 

 alongside the rapids, between the two divisions of 

 the cataract, turning now and then to look at me. 

 Presently they came to a steep, ice-burnished ac 

 clivity, which they ascended by a succession of 

 quick, short, stiff-legged leaps, reaching the top 

 without a struggle. This was the most startling 

 feat of mountaineering I had ever witnessed, and, 

 considering only the mechanics of the thing, my 

 astonishment could hardly have been greater had 

 they displayed wings and taken to flight. " Sure 

 footed" mules on such ground would have fallen 

 and rolled like loosened boulders. Many a time, 

 where the slopes are far lower, I have been com 

 pelled to take off my shoes and stockings, tie them 

 to my belt, and creep barefooted, with the utmost 

 caution. No wonder then, that I watched the 

 progress of these animal mountaineers with keen 

 sympathy, and exulted in the boundless sufficiency 

 of wild nature displayed in their invention, con 

 struction, and keeping. A few minutes later I 

 caught sight of a dozen more in one band, near the 

 foot of the upper fall. They were standing on the 

 same side of the river with me, only twenty-five or 

 thirty yards away, looking as unworn and perfect 

 as if created on the spot. It appeared by their 

 tracks, which I had seen in the Little Yosemite, 

 and by their present position, that when I came up 

 the canon they were all feeding together down in the 

 valley, and in their haste to reach high ground,where 

 they could look about them to ascertain the nature 

 of the strange disturbance, they were divided, three 

 ascending on one side the river, the rest on the other. 



