224 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



"Bill," I whispered to the guide, ''I think I'll take this 

 fellow too and then we will spend the rest of our time 

 hunting for one that is better than either of these." 

 Suiting the action to the words I fired. The sheep was 

 now standing stern to. The bullet struck him in the 

 rump and his quarters dropped. We got up at once and 

 started to cross the gulley toward the four rams which 

 had disappeared over the ridge, but after we had gone 

 a few steps, we looked back and saw that the second 

 was still able to drag himself a little, so I finished him. 

 All this took place while we were in plain sight of the 

 herd of sixteen grazing on the meadow below us. 



When we crossed over to where the four had been 

 last seen we could not find them. Later we discovered 

 that they had gone up into the snow and were making 

 their way over the divide into the country at the head 

 of Benjamin Creek. But a few yards farther and we 

 were able to look over the other side of the ridge down 

 to the lower ground somewhat east of the meadow where 

 the first-seen herd of sixteen had been feeding, and there 

 they were, all together, grazing on a new pasturage as 

 unafraid as when we had first observed them, in spite of 

 the fact that three rifle shots had been fired within a 

 quarter mile of their position, and that two sheep had 

 died in full view of them. But a careful inspection 

 showed us that none of these had better horns than 

 those we had killed and we decided to postpone to 

 another day our attempt to find a larger animal to com- 

 plete the three which I was allowed to secure under the 

 regular hunting license. Still other bands were grazing 

 farther eastward and we did not pursue any of them. 



Back to our victims we went, and as the first shot 

 had been fired at noon we had lunch of cold broiled 



