!6o RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



point, for his wonderfully developed smelling powers ; he lives in such 

 very broken country that the currents of air often go over his head, so 

 that it is at times possible to hunt him almost down wind. 



A band of sheep is, if anything, even more difficult to approach than 

 is a single ram ; but, on the other hand, it is far easier to get on the track 

 of and to find out, as there are always some young members guilty of 

 indiscretions. All of the flock are ever on the lookout. While the others 

 are grazing there is always at least one with its head up ; and occasion- 

 ally a particularly watchful ewe will jump up on some bowlder, or at least 

 stand with her fore-legs against its side, so as to get a wider view. Any 

 unexplained sight or sound is announced to the rest of the herd by a kind 

 of hissing snort, or sometimes by a stamp of the forefoot on the ground. 

 If the intruder is either smelt or seen, the whole herd instantly break 

 into the strong but not particularly swift gallop which distinguishes the 

 species, and go straight away from the danger towards the roughest 

 ground that they can reach. If, however, only alarmed by a sound, or if 

 the suspicious object is some distance off, the animals often run together 

 into a bunch and stand gazing in its direction for a few seconds prior to 

 making off. Among cliffs and precipices the echoes are so confusing that 

 if the hunter keeps out of sight the herd occasionally become utterly 

 bewildered by the firing, and, as a result, spend several fatal minutes in a 

 futile running to and fro, uncertain what course will take them out of dan- 

 ger. One day my cousin, West Roosevelt, after a long and careful stalk, 

 got close up to three sheep in a very deep and narrow ravine ; and 

 although, owing to their being almost underneath him, he at first over- 

 shot, yet all three of the startled and panic-struck animals were killed 

 before they recovered their wits sufficiently to run out of range. 



But a chance like this may not happen once in a hunter's lifetime. 

 Of all American game, this is the one in whose pursuit the successful 

 hunter needs to show most skill, hardihood, and resolution. On ordinary 

 occasions a big-horn, when menaced by danger, flees beyond its reach 

 with instant decision and headlong speed, disappearing with incredible 

 rapidity over ground where it needs an expert cragsman to so much as 

 follow at a walk. Its wonderful feats of climbing have, as with the 

 chamois and ibex of the Old World, given rise to many fables, the most 

 widespread being the belief that the rams, in plunging down precipices, 

 alight on their horns. So the chamois was said to hang over ledges by 

 means of its short, hooked horns, and when cornered on the edge of a 

 sheer precipice, where there was no escape from the hunter, of its own 

 accord to thrust its body against his outstretched knife as we read 



