SHEEP-HUNTING i6i 



ment that day. Two others of the party were out 

 shooting at coyotes, birds, anything they came 

 across ; and when after infinite trouble I had 

 crawled up within shooting distance of the sheep, 

 and was pulling myself together and settling myself 

 for the fatal moment, they fired a shot, started the 

 game, and snatched the victory from out of my very 

 grasp, and I had all my labour to begin over again. 

 To make a long story short, I made three stalks on 

 those sheep, for they were unaccustomed to the 

 sound of firearms, and did not run far, and three 

 times the same thing happened, and I was baulked 

 by the same unlucky cause. On the third occasion, 

 however, the sheep were seriously scared, and ran 

 so far that, as it was getting late, I was obliged to 

 leave them, and with a very heavy heart set a gloomy 

 face towards home. On my way over a high ridge I 

 noticed something curious away out on the plains 

 near a bend of the Platte, and with the glasses made 

 out a lot of tents or Indian tepees, I could not de- 

 termine which. We had a consultation about it in 

 camp that evening, and decided that, as there were 

 no Indians in the neighbourhood, what I saw must 

 have been the tents of a company of soldiers we 

 expected to meet us from the fort. 

 The next morning my hunting companion, my 



