After Bighorn 



39 



all shapes and sizes, as though they had been 

 broken off from the cliffs above and rolled 

 down the mountain-side on the bench, over 

 which I was obliged to travel. While going 

 on at a rapid pace I stepped on a rock and 

 at the same time it tilted and threw me heavily 

 to the ground, wrenching my injured knee seri- 

 ously. It then began to dawn upon me that 

 I was doomed to a night in the mountains 

 alone. After lying some ten or fifteen minu- 

 tes I got up with difficulty, as my knee pained 

 me considerably, started off with a hobble; 

 and as I advanced, it limbered up. Just about 

 this time I started a covey of ptarmigan ; some 

 went off with a whirr and others hopped up on 

 a rock, at the same time uttering their crack- 

 ling noise. 



Having had nothing to eat since dawn and 

 the prospect of a hot camp supper being uncer- 

 tain, I immediately saw my dinner through the 

 flakes of snow with its head bobbing backward 

 and forward. My first impulse was to shoot 

 the bird's head off, but upon second thought, 

 what if I were to miss? I covered the bird's 

 body instead, pulled, saw pieces of the bird 



