384 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



filled with air which acts on him like champagne, and on the 

 skyline, as likely as not, he sees the great white sterns 

 of half a dozen sheep feeding quietly on their way back to their 

 sleeping ground. By ten o'clock at latest those sheep will lie 

 down, and then where they lie down they will stay, motionless 

 as the grey rocks they lie amongst, until nearly four o'clock, 

 their eyes apparently open the whole time and fixed steadily 

 upon the nearest skyline. Generally, sheep will choose a 

 little sheltered meadow at the foot of a small glacier, lying 

 down in the very middle of it, each old ram with his head 

 turned in a different direction, and each with his eyes fixed on 

 a different skyline. When sheep have chosen such a position 

 as this, the only thing to be done is to lie and watch them until 

 they move away to some more accessible country. Many a time 

 have I lain like this waiting until first one old ram and then 

 another rose, stretched himself, and then lay down again for 

 another forty winks. It is very exasperating, but when at last 

 the whole band gets upon its legs and feeds slowly over a ridge 

 from behind which it is possible to stalk them, verily you have 

 your reward. 



As illustrative of the nature of the country in which sheep 

 west of the Rockies are killed, I have seen a well-known 

 British Columbian rancher ride up to a band of ewes in the 

 highlands of the Ashnola country, galloping after them until 

 within range, then dismounting and killing two out of the 

 band. This was in early autumn, and in what I consider the 

 easiest country I have ever seen ; in winter, of course, when 

 the snows are heavy on the mountains, the sheep come right 

 down on to the flat, by the edge of the Frazer river. Indeed, 

 in the winter (end of November 1890) I found a fair-sized 

 ram feeding amongst a band of cattle, and killed him before 

 he had put a hundred yards between himself and them. 

 Another recent statement to which I must take exception is 

 that 'a man who can find a band of ten or fifteen (sheep) 

 after a week's riding and climbing is a fortunate man.' Sheep 

 extend from the Missouri to Alaska, and whatever their 



