84 HUNTING TRIPS 



made with perfect poise ; and there seems to 

 be no ground so difficult that the big-horn 

 cannot cross it. There is probably no animal 

 in the world his superior in climbing ; and his 

 only equals are the other species of mountain 

 sheep and the ibexes. No matter how sheer 

 the cliff, if there are ever so tiny cracks or 

 breaks in the surface, the big-horn will 

 bound up or down it with wonderful ease 

 and seeming absence of effort. The perpen- 

 dicular bounds it can make are truly startling 

 in strong contrast with its distant relative 

 the prong-horn which can leap almost any 

 level jump but seems unable to clear the 

 smallest height. In descending a sheer wall 

 of rock the big-horn holds all four feet to- 

 gether and goes down in long jumps, bound- 

 ing off the surface almost like a rubber ball 

 every time he strikes it. The way that one 

 will vanish over the roughest and most bro- 

 ken ground is a perpetual surprise to any one 

 that has hunted them ; and the ewes are 

 quite as skilful as the rams, while even the 

 very young lambs seem almost as well able 



