SEARCHING FOR RAMS 53 



him to the bare ground and drew out the entrails, while 

 Gage and Spahr, who had witnessed the whole stalk, 

 were coming up with the horses. We loaded the ram on 

 Mike, and Spahr immediately started with him for camp. 

 I was delighted to send a whole ram to Rungius, who 

 could now study and sketch it in the flesh. He was a 

 fine ram with seven rings; his horns were of the spread- 

 ing type, twenty-five inches from tip to tip. 



From this point Gage and I went to timber-line at the 

 lower end of the divide and made camp, after which he 

 returned to the main camp leaving me alone. A piece of 

 mutton was soon cooked and with crackers and tea, made 

 my supper. Two willow sticks were bent in the form 

 of a bow and placed parallel, ten inches apart with the 

 ends thrust in the ground, so that a small piece of mos- 

 quito netting could be hung on them to cover my head 

 while sleeping, for the mosquitoes were particularly 

 numerous here, perhaps worse than at any other point 

 near the divide. 



But it was a beautiful spot, in an undisturbed wilder- 

 ness. The sun had gone down and the sky was aglow. 

 The landscape in front was seen between the spruces. 

 How many times in after years I have felt the beauty 

 of beholding mountains and far distant vistas through 

 spruces whose graceful tops, like sharp pointed spires, 

 lined the near horizon! Down through the deep descend- 

 ing valley, clothed with willows and evergreens, bordered 

 on both sides by high mountains, I could see the broad 

 meadow-lands and the dim mountain ranges beyond. 



At last, rolling under the blanket and arranging my 



