CHAPTER IV 



HE bighorn, or mountain sheep, is credited by 

 many writers as the keenest-eyed and wariest of 

 Rocky Mountain game, but he is over-estimated. 

 Few men know much concerning them, mainly 

 because they are scarce, and also because they are hard to hunt. 

 Most hunters dislike to own ignorance of any kind of game, 

 so they either repeat some time-worn tale of the bighorn or 

 invent one of their own. True, the mountain ram is watchful, 

 for his existence depends upon that ; but he cannot see like the 

 antelope, and in antelope or deer country would be an easy 

 prey. His worst enemy, the mountain lion, keeps him con- 

 stantly alert, as the boulders, gulches, and scattering timber of 

 his range afford splendid cover for the merciless cougar. They 

 are gradually becoming extinct. 



Accompanied by William Wells and Bert Hill, my wife and 

 I left the head of Green River for Cliff Creek, one July day, 

 with a pack outfit. The first day we made thirty miles, 

 camping at Falers, in Fall River Basin. The second day we 

 stopped on Cliff Creek to eat our noonday lunch, and while 

 eating I caught sight of something on the mountain ahead of 

 us, which we at first took to be an elk, but our glasses revealed 



an old silvertip bear and two cubs. We all had a good 



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