Among the High Hills. 109 



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 

 o. steep cliff shoulder. Some little niches and cracks in 

 the rock and a few projections and diminutive ledges on 

 its surface, barely enabled us to swarm across, with pains- 

 taking 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, lead- 

 ing 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, unfor- 

 tunately injuring one horn. 



When much hunted, bighorn become the wariest of 

 all American game, and their chase is then peculiarly A/ 

 laborious and exciting. But where they have known 

 nothing of men, not having been molested by hunters, 

 they are exceedingly tame. Professor John Bache Mc- 

 Master informs me that in 1877 he penetrated to the 

 Uintah Mountains of Wyoming, which were then almost 

 unknown to hunters ; he found all the game very bold, 

 and the wild sheep in particular so unsuspicious that he 



