258 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



forward, but recovered himself and crossed over the 

 ridge out of sight. We jumped and slid down into 

 the ravine again, and clambered up the opposite 

 side as fast as our lungs and the slippery ice would 

 let us ; then taking the trail of the wounded ram we 

 trotted along it. We had not far to go ; for, as I ex- 

 pected, we found him lying on his side a couple of 

 hundred yards beyond the ridge, his eyes already 

 glazed in death. The bullet had gone in behind the 

 shoulder and ranged clean through his body cross- 

 wise, going a little forward; no animal less tough 

 than a mountain ram could have gone any distance 

 at all with such a wound. He had most obligingly 

 run round to a part of the hill where we could bring 

 up one of the horses without very much difficulty. 

 Accordingly I brought up old Manitou, who can 

 carry anything and has no fear, and the big-horn 

 was soon strapped across his back. It was a fine 

 ram, with perfectly shaped but not very large horns. 



The other ram, two years old, with small horns, 

 had bounded over the ridge before I could get a 

 shot at him; we followed his trail for half a mile, 

 but as he showed no signs of halting and we were 

 anxious to get home we then gave up the pursuit. 



It was still early in the day, and we made up our 

 minds to push back for the home ranch, as we did 

 not wish to be caught out in a long storm. The 

 lowering sky was already overcast by a mass of 

 leaden-gray clouds ; and it was evident that we had 

 no time to lose. In a little over an hour we were 

 back at the log camp, where the ram was shifted 



