fn 



%9 



Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



'P 



was the open, wind-swept peaks, where neither 

 Lions nor riflemen could approach unseen. He 

 found more than one upland salt-lick where their 

 natural need could be supplied without the 

 dangerous lowland journeys that they once had 

 thought necessary. He taught his band never 

 to walk along the top of a ridge, but always 

 along one side, so as to look down both ways 

 without being conspicuous. And he added one 

 famous invention of his own. This was the 

 "hide." If a hunter chances close to a band 

 of Sheep before they see him, the old plan was 

 to make a dash for safety — a good enough 

 plan in the days of bows and arrows or even of 

 muzzle-loading rifles, but the repeating rifle is a 

 different arm. Krag himself learned, and then 

 taught his tribe, to crouch and lie perfectly still 

 when thus surprised. In nine cases out of ten 

 this will baffle a human hunter, as Krag found 

 times without number. 



It is always good for a race when a great 

 one arises in it. Krag marked a higher level 

 for the Bighorns. His children multiplied on 

 the Yak-in-i-kak around the Gunder Peak, and 

 eastward as far as Kintla Lake at least. They 



66 



