198 A SHOOTING TRIP TO KAMCHATKA 



Presently, as I was peering down through a clearing 

 in the mist, I perceived two animals on my right 

 coming up a ravine in our direction. Creeping cau- 

 tiously down the sharp stones, which yielded under 

 my feet, I made for a mass of rock, and on looking 

 over found that the mist had again filled the gully. I 

 waited motionless, the wind being favourable, for that 

 aggravating veil to lift, and as it partially thinned 

 down I vaguely distinguished two sheep advancing 

 quietly a hundred yards below me ; I could just tell 

 that they were young rams. Taking my chance, I 

 fired at the nearest one, which rolled over, while the 

 other ran a few yards, and. stopping to look back for 

 his companion, received my second bullet, which 

 knocked him head over heels into the abyss. I found 

 them to be both four-year-old rams, and though the 

 heads were by no means trophies to be proud of, I 

 enjoyed the illusion of a success. One of these 

 animals had entirely shed its winter coat, the other 

 still carried thick brown patches of hair. I was 

 specially struck by the shortness of their skulls and 

 prominent eye-bones. Their summer coat is of a dull 

 grey hue, lighter on the legs, rump, and under the 

 belly ; their height at the shoulder is about forty 

 inches. An average ram weighs from 200 to 250 lbs. 

 (six to seven poods) with(jut the gralloch. With 



