A GREAT MOUNTAIN SHEEP HUNT 237 



mit sky-line on the evening of September i^th which led 

 the hunters into that particular territory. 



John Norboe returned from a look into that region 

 on the very night the sheep were seen, and in terse but 

 picturesque language he impressed his hearers with the 

 idea that it was a bad country in which to hunt. Mack 

 then remarked, with emphasis, 



" Well, if he says it's bad country, you kin shore set 

 it down that it's a terror! " 



Said John, " Director, I was in a place this afternoon 

 that I don't believe you would be willing to get into for 

 a million dollars. In fact, money couldn't hire me to try 

 it again myself. I started to climb up a bad place, and 

 when I got away up, I couldn't go on, and I couldn't get 

 do<wn\ For a while I just hung on, and wondered how 

 many days it would take the boys to find my body.'* 



" And how did you get out of it? " 



" Well, at last I managed to take my shoes off, and 

 hang 'em round my neck. Then I hung on till I got my 

 nerve back, and finally I managed to climb on up. I 

 haven't been so skeered in years. It's lucky I didn't have 

 my gun with me. I'd shore a-dropped it! " 



This was the country south-east of Phillips Peak. 



On the morning of the i6th, Mr. Phillips and the two 

 Norboes took the four-by-seven silk tent, a scanty supply 

 of blankets and three days' rations, and marched off down 

 Avalanche Creek. They planned to strike the sheep 

 country from the south, and the idea was right. They 

 tramped down Avalanche Creek to where it strikes Roth 

 Mountain, beyond which it was unexplored. At that 



