SEARCHING FOR SHEEP 123 



alone, unseen, while the wonderful panorama of landscape 

 was spread out before me, I watched that picture of wild 

 life. I was unsuspected by all living creatures except the 

 ravens which occasionally circled above me uttering their 

 hoarse croaks. 



For three hours, as I shivered and kept low behind a 

 large rock, the sheep and the moose remained in sight. 

 The bull with the cow seemed to feed about the meadow, 

 its head close to the ground as if cropping the grass off 

 the small hummocks; while the cow, quite indifferent to 

 him, kept browsing on the willows along the edge of the 

 woods, its calf sometimes near, at other times disappearing 

 altogether in the spruces. After an hour, the bull lay 

 down in the centre of the meadow near the lake, while the 

 cow continued feeding. The bull had evidently seques- 

 tered the cow for awhile in that hidden spot, to enjoy his 

 short family life not always, perhaps, so easily obtained. 

 It would not have been a difficult matter to stalk with a 

 chance of success, for I could lay out a good course against 

 the wind to a knoll above and near the meadow which 

 was little more than half a mile distant from me. But 

 having resolved not to go for moose until I had secured 

 sufficient specimens of sheep, I did not want to lose an 

 opportunity when sheep were practically within shot 

 below me. 



Finally, the ewes rose and began feeding along the 

 slope in a direction away from me. There was no alter- 

 native, and I put up the three-hundred-yard sight. At 

 the first shot a ewe fell dead, and another at the third 

 both struck in the neck. The others dashed diagonally 



