ON THE PRAIR 81 



what gentler and more fertile, but still very 

 rugged, domain of the black-tail deer. 



Between all such masses of rough country 

 lay wide, grassy plateaus or long stretches 

 of bare plain, covered with pebbly shingle. 

 We loped across all these open places; and 

 when we came to a reach of broken country 

 would leave our horses and hunt through it 

 on foot. Except where the wind had blown 

 it off, there was a thin coat of snow over 

 every thing, and the icy edges and sides of 

 the cliffs gave only slippery and uncertain 

 foothold, so as to render the climbing doubly 

 toilsome. Hunting the big-horn is at all 

 times the hardest and most difficult kind of 

 sport, and is equally trying to both wind 

 and muscle; and for that very reason the 

 big-horn ranks highest among all the species 

 of game that are killed by still-hunting, and 

 its chase constitutes the noblest form of 

 sport with the rifle, always excepting, of 

 course, those kinds of hunting where the 

 quarry is itself dangerous to attack. Climb- 



