3 88 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



After waiting for awhile we followed the wounded beast, 

 hoping that as we had given him time he would lie down and 

 afford us a chance of another stalk. But, as the Indian said, 

 ' there was no lie down in that ram.' He could only go very 

 slowly (at a walk), but he could keep going, and over the 

 ground to which he took us we could do no more. 



We tried everything that we could think of to circumvent 

 him, but it was no good. When the dusk was falling I got 

 my last view of his great white quarters, lurching slowly over 

 yet another ridge. He was evidently bound for a far country, 

 and had no intention of stopping until he reached it ; I was 

 limping almost as badly as he was, and was far more ' done.' 

 I had left a nasty piece of rock and ice behind me to recross 

 on my way to camp, I had not a notion how far I had come, 

 where my Indian was, or which was the nearest way to my 

 camp, so with a heart full of bitterness I turned back, vowing 

 to track him on the morrow and stay with him as long as he 

 stayed in British Columbia. 



But then I knew only that he was a very big ram. When 

 I stood beside the beast which the Indian and myself had 

 taken for a two-year-old at most, and taped his horns at 14^ 

 ins., I had a better idea what the beast must have been like 

 beside which this fair ram had seemed a pigmy. Of course, 

 that night enough snow fell to hide the tracks of a mammoth ! 

 I try sometimes to console myself with the reflection that after 

 all he was probably only a 16- or, at most, i7-in. ram, but it 

 won't do. I know better. From blood-stains upon the rocks 

 (my Indian had my glass) I am pretty sure that I shot through 

 the withers the first time, and probably hit him very far back 

 with one of the others. 



It is an extraordinary thing that though sheep so often turn 

 and bolt downhill when merely frightened, a wounded ram, 

 especially a big one, will struggle on higher and higher as long 

 as life and the possibility of ascending lasts. 



I have noticed the same habit in Caucasian ttir ; but, of 

 course, my experience may be exceptional. 



