THE BIG-HORN 211 



mals. During the winter season the older males always 

 lead the way from one feeding-ground to another. . . 



"... When the sun grows warm in the spring 

 the old rams leave the general herd and steal into 

 the highest mountains, gradually working their way, 

 as the snow leaves the higher elevations, into the very 

 highest meadows. These are generally small, but 

 numerous, and almost always shut in by rugged peaks, 

 making them very secluded and rendering them almost 

 entirely free from every kind of enemy, even a very 

 large per cent, of the most ambitious big-game hunters. 

 In these high pastures, surrounded with patches of 

 eternal snow and ice that are piled so deep in many 

 places that the short summers cannot destroy them, 

 they live a quiet, peaceful life, and exchange their old 

 coats for new ones. They have their entire new coat 

 by the middle of July, and it is then they begin to 

 take on flesh rapidly. By the last of September they 

 are very fat; in fact, I have seen them in August so fat 

 that they seemed burdened under the great weight of 

 flesh." 



The shooting is thus cleverly described by the same 

 writer : 



" I was once with two companions^ one a white man 

 and the other an Indian, high up in the Chc-on-nee 

 Mountains, N. W. B. C, hunting ovis stonei. We 

 reached a very high point about 11 A.M. from where 

 several high ridges extended in several directions. I 

 decided we would take up positions overlooking these 

 ridges and watch for game, and accordingly my party 

 located themselves for tlic purpose, no two being over 

 one hundred yards apart. We had kept our places 



