XV FIRST OVIS AMMON BAGGED 259 



and began sliding down towards them, keeping- out of 

 view by making for a friendly rock. As soon as my feet 

 touched the rock, I sat up and found myself face to face 

 with a ram who was watching me curiously from about 

 100 yards. He was directly facing me, and just beyond 

 were two others broadside on. The other three were 

 not visible, being behind a rise in the ground. Having 

 been detected, I could not wait for the three I did not see, 

 so aimed at the best visible, one of the broadside sheep, 

 and dropped him with a bullet through the spot where 

 neck and shoulder join. The rest of the herd went off 

 at once, and I fired a couple of shots at the last one. 

 Meeting the ponies and men lower down, they turned 

 back up a hill to my right, and I had a shot or two with 

 the 500 yards' sight up, and then ran across the hollow to 

 the opposite side of the ravine to try and intercept them. 

 I saw them again at about 400 yards, and lying down had 

 two more shots at the nearest ram. Then looking through 

 the telescope I saw that one had blood down his left side 

 coming from the shoulder. Evidently he had been touched 

 by a splinter of a bullet, and had a w^ound only skin 

 deep, for if a bullet, or part of one even, had penetrated 

 that spot, he must have dropped, and he was going up 

 the hill with perfect ease and comfort to himself when 

 I saw him. We watched the herd of five go up to the 

 peak above us and then disappear, after which we went 

 back to the ravine to cut up the dead ram, and have 

 breakfast. The horns were only 24^ inches and 25^^ 

 inches respectively, with a base girth of 15 inches. I 

 should not have fired had I known they were so small. 

 It was just 1 1.30 A.M. when I started, accompanied by 



