ber this flock united and moved off to the 

 south. I made haste to climb to the top of Mt. 

 Meeker so as to command most of their move- 

 ments. I had been watching for several hours 

 without even a glimpse of them. Rising to 

 move away, I surprised them as they lay at 

 rest near-by, a little below the summit; and I 

 also surprised a lion that evidently was sneak- 

 ing up on them. This was close to the altitude 

 of fourteen thousand feet. The mountain lion 

 is the game-hog of the heights and is a persistent 

 and insidious foe of sheep. He kills both old 

 and young, and usually makes a capture by 

 sneaking up on his victim. Sometimes for hours 

 he lies in wait by a sheep trail. 



The day following the surprise on Mt. 

 Meeker, this flock appeared at timber-line 

 about three miles to the southeast. Here some 

 hunters fired on it. As it fled past me, I counted, 

 and one of the twenty-eight was missing. The 

 flock spent most of the next day about Chasm 

 Lake, just under the northern crags of Meeker. 

 Before night it was back at its old stamping- 

 ground on Battle Mountain. Early the following 



42 



