American Big-Game Hunting 



knees. But the judicious T (I have never 



hunted with a more careful and thorough 

 man) was right in the route he had chosen, 

 and after we had descended again to the edge 

 of the snow, we looked over a rock, and saw, 

 thirty yards below us, the nanny and kid for 

 which we had been aiming. I should have 

 said earlier that the gathering of yesterday 

 had dispersed during the night, and now little 

 bunches of three and four goats could be seen 

 up and down the canon. We were on the 

 exact ground they had occupied, and their 

 many tracks were plain. My first shot missed 

 thirty yards! and as nanny and kid went 

 bounding by on the hill below, I knocked her 



over with a more careful bullet, and T 



shot the kid. The little thing was not dead 

 when we came up, and at the sight of us 

 it gave a poor little thin bleat that turns me 

 remorseful whenever I think of it. We had 

 all the justification that any code exacts. We 

 had no fresh meat, and among goats the kid 

 alone is eatable; and I justly desired speci- 

 mens of the entire family. 



We carried the whole kid to camp, and later 

 its flesh was excellent. The horns of the 



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