Among the High Hills 131 



by creeping along nearly on a level with him. Ac- 

 cordingly we worked our way down through a big 

 cleft in the rocks, being forced to go very slowly 

 and carefully lest we should start a loose stone ; and 

 at last reached a narrow terrace of rock and grass 

 along which we walked comparatively at our ease. 

 Soon it dwindled away, and we then had to do our 

 only difficult piece of climbing a clamber for fifty 

 or sixty feet across a steep cliff shoulder. Some 

 little niches and cracks in the rock and a few pro- 

 jections and diminutive ledges on its surface, barely 

 enabled us to swarm across, with painstaking care 

 not merely to avoid alarming the game this time, 

 but also to avoid a slip which would have proved 

 fatal. Once across we came on a long, grassy shelf, 

 leading round a shoulder into the cleft where the 

 ram lay. As I neared the end I crept forward on 

 hands and knees, and then crawled flat, shoving the 

 rifle ahead of me, until I rounded the shoulder and 

 peered into the rift. As my eyes fell on the ram he 

 sprang to his feet, with a clatter of loose stones, and 

 stood facing me, some sixty yards off, his dark face 

 and white muzzle brought out finely by the battered, 

 curved horns. I shot into his chest, hitting him in 

 the sticking place; and after a few mad bounds he 

 tumbled headlong, and fell a very great distance, 

 unfortunately injuring one horn. 



When much hunted, bighorn become the wariest 

 of all American game, and their chase is then pe- 



