VI 



After Big Horn 169 



hunt caribou in snow shoes ; as we have neither 

 of us had a pair on in our Hves, and know as much 

 about them as we do about the astrolabe, I don't 

 see very well how this is to be accomplished, but I 

 suppose we shall try. If we can walk on snow 

 shoes we can, if we can't walk on snow shoes we 

 can't. 



' Good-bye, I am pretty well tired, having only 

 reached this place at five in the morning after 

 travelling, night and day, across an awful country.' 



To His Daughter. 



' EsTES Park, Colorado, 

 * \Zth January. 



* We have been up in the Rocky Mountains for 

 three weeks, amid snow and ice, hunting wild sheep, 

 " big horns " they call them here, from the immense 

 size of their curly horns, which are about as large 

 and round as my leg. One wonders how they can carry 

 them and jump about the steep, sharp rocks as they 

 do. They are as big as a small deer, and wonderfully 

 strong and active. We had a jolly big dog to hunt 

 them with sometimes ; when he found them he 

 rushed after them and made them take to a high 

 rock, and kept them there till we came and shot 

 them. We had some extraordinary trout-fishing ; 

 the river was frozen two feet thick, so that we had 

 to cut holes with an axe to get at the water, and 

 then we crouched just like so many big frogs, each one 



