A Trip After Mountain Sheep 251 



As far as lay in us, on our first day's hunt we 

 paid proper heed to all the rules of hunting-craft; 

 but without success. Up the slippery, ice-covered 

 buttes we clambered, clinging to the rocks, and 

 slowly working our way across the faces of the 

 cliffs, or cautiously creeping along the narrow 

 ledges, peering over every crest long and carefully, 

 and from the peaks scanning the ground all about 

 with the field-glasses. But we saw no sheep, and 

 but little sign of them. Still we did see some sign, 

 and lost a shot, either through bad luck or bad 

 management. This was while going through a 

 cluster of broken buttes, whose peaks rose up like 

 sharp cones. On reaching the top of one at the 

 leeward end, we worked cautiously up the side, 

 seeing nothing, to the other end, and then down 

 along the middle. When about half-way back we 

 came across the fresh footprints of a ewe or year- 

 ling ram in a little patch of snow. On tracing them 

 back we found that it had been lying down on the 

 other side of a small bluff, within a hundred yards 

 of where we had passed, and must have either got 

 our wind, or else have heard us make some noise. 

 At any rate it had gone off, and though we followed 

 its tracks a little in the snow, they soon got on the 

 bare, frozen ground and we lost them. 



After that we saw nothing. The cold, as the day 

 wore on, seemed gradually to chill us through and 

 through ; our hands and feet became numb, and our 

 ears tingled under our fur caps. We hunted care- 

 fully through two or three masses of jagged buttes 



