130 PJRAIR1E AND FOREST. 



would fly for if alarmed ; to follow them from beneath 

 would simply be needless waste of time, to stalk them 

 from above almost certain to produce success. At length 

 the desired-for time is come : silently and well-secreted, 

 search with keen eye every ridge that will command a 

 view of the valleys beneath. 



Your careful survey of the country is at length 

 rewarded, for far beneath you, so far off that their 

 outline it is almost impossible to define, you perceive 

 a family party, probably a buck, doe, and pair of kids, 

 ascending leisurely to more elevated ground. 



Slowly plucking the tender grass at each step, they 

 graze upwards ; but, ever on guard against danger, the 

 male or female pause to watch, or not unfrequently 

 post themselves on some rocky excrescence to note 

 .what may be occurring in the lower world. At length 

 their slow approach has brought them within range 

 of your rifle ; but be not impatient, rest a little longer 

 if you wish to make certain work, for the bullet must 

 be well and strongly placed, or else your labour will 

 be fruitless, for few animals possess greater vitality, 

 and unless, in Yankee parlance, you tumble the quarry 

 in his track, the wounded game will struggle upwards 

 with speed lent by fear, or fall headlong over the 

 nearest ravine into some rugged canon impossible to 

 descend into, or where, even if successful in reaching 

 its bottom, the carcass would be found pounded and 

 torn into a shapeless mass of flesh, only fit food for 

 the loathsome vultures who probably have already 

 commenced to congregate, in expectation of a feed on 

 their beloved carrion. 



In the days of De Bonneville, and Lewis and Clark, 

 big horns and rocky mountain sheep were very abun- 



