296 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



Why the prongbucks were so comparatively shy I 

 do not know, for right on the ground with them we came 

 upon deer, and, in the immediate neighborhood, moun- 

 tain sheep, which were absurdly tame. The mountain 

 sheep were nineteen in number, for the most part does 

 and yearlings with a couple of three-year-old rams, but 

 not a single big fellow for the big fellows at this sea- 

 son are off by themselves, singly or in little bunches, high 

 up in the mountains. The band I saw was tame to a 

 degree matched by but few domestic animals. 



They were feeding on the brink of a steep washout 

 at the upper edge of one of the benches on the moun- 

 tain-side just below where the abrupt slope began. They 

 were alongside a little gully with sheer walls. I rode 

 my horse to within forty yards of them, one of them occa- 

 sionally looking up and at once continuing to feed. Then 

 they moved slowly off and leisurely crossed the gully to 

 the other side. I dismounted, walked around the head 

 of the gully, and moving cautiously, but in plain sight, 

 came closer and closer until I was within twenty yards, 

 when I sat down on a stone and spent certainly twenty 

 minutes looking at them. They paid hardly any atten- 

 tion to my presence certainly no more than well-treated 

 domestic creatures would pay. One of the rams rose on 

 his hind legs, leaning his fore-hoofs against a little pine 

 tree, and browsed the ends of the budding branches. The 

 others grazed on the short grass and herbage or lay down 

 and rested two of the yearlings several times playfully 

 butting at one another. Now and then one would glance 

 in my direction without the slightest sign of fear barely 



