398 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



they were able to scamper away as easily after their bounds 

 as if they had never made them. The broken tips of the 

 horns, and the often scaled or split character of portions of 

 their outer rind, are supposed by old hunters to be the re- 

 sult of falling on them constantly; but this is evidently a 

 mistake, and is due to the habit the animals have of using 

 their appendages to aid them in climbing steep and stony 

 places. The rams also use them freely enough in combats, 

 and this undoubtedly causes the scaling or splitting; for 

 they must be hard, indeed, if they can resist uninjured the 

 terrific force with which two warriors, weighing from one 

 to over two hundred pounds each, strike each other. These 

 combats are waged according to the rules in existence 

 among the domestic species, but, owing to the closeness of 

 the horns and their forward projection, the animals do not 

 suffer so much from headache after the contests as the lat- 

 ter, nor do they seem to be so fond of causeless warfare. 



Both sexes are adorned with head appendages, but they 

 are rather light on the females, those of a veteran great- 

 grandmother not being larger than those of a two-year-old 

 male. They are also less recurved, being more like those 

 of a goat; yet they ai*e most effective weapons in an as- 

 sault, as prowling foxes, wolves, and wild-cats have learned 

 to their sorrow. I once saw a wolf trying to make a deli- 

 cious repast off a lamb three or four months old, which it 

 caught in a bit of wood during the temporary absence of 

 the mother; but, ere it could kill it the latter arrived, most 

 unexpectedly, on the scene, and, charging the bandit with 

 the greatest vehemence, gave it such a crushing blow on 

 the ribs that it was glad to beat as rapid a retreat as its 

 stomach-ache would permit, while mother and lamb trotted 

 off up the mountain. 



The skulking brute, which looked thoroughly disappoint- 

 ed, sore, and heart-sick, was not through with its troubles, 

 however; for in its hungry meditation, it paid no heed to 

 surrounding objects, so found itself unexpectedly among a 

 small flock of rams which had just emerged from a ravine, 

 where they had been drinking. When it saw these new 



