The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 



with my prize in camp, where I occupied myself 

 in skinning out the whole sheep. This took me 

 quite a long time, as it had to be done very care- 

 fully if the specimen was eventually to be mounted 

 whole. It was dark when I had finished. 



I put down a leg of the mutton before the 

 fire to cook. Hunter was away, and so were the 

 boys, but the former turned up shortly after dark, 

 bringing with him a very nice ram's head he had 

 shot on the mountain opposite to mine. He 

 told me he had sent Elia and Shanghai back to 

 the lake to bring up more supplies and one or 

 two things we had forgotten. I thought this 

 rather a tall order after the six or seven miles we 

 had already done that day, but he laughed and 

 said they preferred to go at once it was all down- 

 hill ! and that they could, by taking a short cut, 

 make the lake in about twelve miles, sleep in the 

 hut, and rejoin us on the morrow. This was all 

 right, but in the morning we were awakened by a 

 drizzling rain, which prompted us to put up the 

 tent hurriedly, not before it was necessary, for 

 we had a sample of a Scotch mist throughout that 

 day which kept us willing prisoners in camp. 

 Towards night the boys not having turned up, 

 I thought something had gone wrong with them, 

 that they had lost their way, perhaps, in the 

 mist, and might have to spend the night out in 

 the open. It was nearly nine o'clock and still 

 no signs of them, so I fired a shot into the air. 



252 



