THE BIG-HORN SHEEP 



I6 7 



among them ; but I was out for meat rather than for sport. They were 

 very watchful, ever on the lookout ; and as the afternoon wore on one of 

 the more restless would now and then get up, walk off a few steps, or 

 stand gazing intently into the far distance. There was nothing for me to 

 do except to wait until they grew hungry and shifted their position to 

 some place which there was a chance of my approaching unseen. So for 

 three hours I lay on the iron ground, under the lee of a bowlder that but 

 partly shielded me from the wind, munching the strip of jerked venison I 

 had carried in my pocket, and peeping at the sheep through a tuft of 

 tall, coarse grass that grew on top of the ridge. 



At last, when it wanted but little more than an hour of sunset, the 

 sheep all got on their legs, one after another, and, led by an old ewe, 

 began to descend into the valley. They went down the cliff by a sort of 

 break or slide, hopping dexterously from rock to rock. On coming to the 

 steep slope at its foot they struck into a trot, which merged into a fast 

 gallop as they got nearly down. I feared that they would stop before 

 coming to the canon at the bottom of the valley ; but they did not, cross- 

 ing it without hesitation, for all its sheer-sided and slippery depth, and 

 continuing their course towards the end of the chain of hills on which I 

 was, where they halted to graze, after going up nearly to the top. It 

 was excellent ground for a stalk. The ridge went down to the left in the 

 steep, grassy slopes on which they were feeding, while on the right it 

 broke abruptly off into a precipice, with a narrow ledge high up along 

 its face. 



This ledge made the approach an easy one. The only difficult places 

 were those where the ledge was interrupted, and I had either cautiously 

 to make my way along the face of the cliff, a very unpleasant task, as 

 the slight hollows or knobs which served me as foot-holds were slip- 

 pery with ice, the risk of a fall being thus enormously increased, or else 

 was forced to go to the top, and, sprawling flat on the smooth slope, drag 

 myself along just to one side of the ridge. I had marked the position of 

 the game by a dwarfed cedar that grew in a crevice on the very crest. It 

 gave excellent cover, and on reaching it and peering out through the 

 branches, I saw the sheep scattered out only some sixty yards below me, 

 and, choosing out a fine young ram, I fired, breaking both shoulders. 

 They all rushed together, and then without an instant's pause raced madly 

 down the hill-side, neither of the two bullets that I sent after them taking 

 effect. I had no time to lose ; so I dressed the ram hastily, tilted him up 

 so that the blood would run out, and left him to be called for with the 

 pony next day. Then I made the best use of the waning light to get 



