CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 59 



noon the word came to our tents that the sheep were 

 coming down. The President, with coat off and a 

 towel around his neck, was shaving. One side of his 

 face was half shaved, and the other side lathered. 

 Hofer and I started for a point on the brink of the 

 canon where we could have a better view. 



" I must see that," said the President. " The shav- 

 ing can wait, and the sheep won't." 



So on he came, accoutred as he was, coatless, 

 hatless, but not latherless, nor towelless. Like the 

 rest of us, his only thought was to see those sheep. 

 With glasses in hand, we watched them descend those 

 perilous heights, leaping from point to point, finding a 

 foothold where none appeared to our eyes, loosening 

 fragments of the crumbling rocks as they came, now 

 poised upon some narrow shelf and preparing for the 

 next leap, zig-zagging or plunging straight down till 

 the bottom was reached, and not one accident or mis- 

 step amid all that insecure footing. I think the Presi- 

 dent was the most pleased of us all; he laughed with 

 the delight of it, and quite forgot his need of a hat 

 and coat till I sent for them. 



In the night we heard the sheep going back; we 

 could tell by the noise of the falling stones. In the 

 morning I confidently expected to see some of them 

 lying dead at the foot of the cliffs, but there they all 

 were at the top once more, apparently safe and sound. 

 They do, however, occasionally meet with accidents 

 in their perilous climbing, and their dead bodies have 

 been found at the foot of the rocks. Doubtless some 

 point of rock to which they had trusted gave way, and 

 crushed them in the descent, or fell upon those in the 

 lead. 



