206 The Mountain Sheep 



twenty of them all rams. Their sex is quite 

 certain ; the most intense impression that was 

 given to my unstrung perceptions is of their 

 huge curving horns and their solemn eyes. It is 

 hateful to think that some of them were hurt and 

 so went off to limp, or to die ; and I am thankful 

 to have but very few memories of wanton shoot- 

 ing, and some consoling ones of temptations 

 resisted. These rams mostly escaped the indis- 

 criminate blasts from my rifle ; of this I am sure. 

 I saw them, high and low, near and far, scuttling 

 into safety over the steep ridges, or down into 

 unseen canons; and upon presently searching 

 the vicinity, we found but one trace of blood. As 

 for the buck-fever, it was the first seizure that I 

 ever had, and it has proved the last. Why it 

 should have held off in previous years and come 

 down upon me in 1888, who shall say? You 

 will wonder as much as I do that a silver-tip 

 bear did not give me the slightest touch of it 

 in July, 1887. A bear is more important game 

 than a sheep; this grizzly was the first I had 

 ever seen, and I was less experienced. Excita- 

 bility is a matter of temperament that varies in- 

 finitely; but this scarcely explains why, with a 

 bear to shoot, no cucumber could have been 



