; 
: 
TE Tm Ce ee eT p SR Me a Mah ey eRe PO EGE dale te 
a 
BYR OY ae 
™ 
_ BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 387 
There was no doubt as to the new-comers. We were looking 
upon the finest bit of sheep ground I had ever seen, and the 
five were worthy of it. There was one enormous ram, two 
which would have satisfied any man, a fourth such as I had 
_ often killed before, and a small fellow. 
_ Everything seemed to favour us at first. The little glacier 
_at the head of the dark gulch had sent a snow-stream tearing 
through the hollow, and this had cut a deep course up which 
we could sneak unseen. I suppose the water must have been 
bitterly cold, but we crawled through it for ten minutes without 
so much as noticing that when we had to come down to our 
knees the icy current ran into our trousers pockets, and 
though the wind blew off the glacier it was welcome, because for 
once it was right in our teeth. In the middle of the gulch wasa 
big mound, and 240 yards from this (I measured the distance 
afterwards) stood the glorious three. Unless we could have 
burrowed, no man could have crept closer unseen, so that from 
this point I had to fire. But why tell the story, and what is 
the good of trying to instruct others when I so often break every 
rule myself? Three things I did on that day which I ought 
not to have done, and I paid the penalty for my folly. First, I 
took my Indian with me on the stalk, and, of course, at the 
critical moment he flurried me with his accursed ‘ Shoot, shoot !’ 
_ He knew what the ram was like upon which I was trying slowly 
_ to drawa bead. Then I took two rifles with me upon that 
_ trip, and shot sometimes with one, sometimes with another. 
The result was that I shot badly with both, and knew no- 
thing of either of them. Lastly, when I had missed or only 
_ wounded the big ram, I lost my head, and instead of waiting 
_ until the beasts should pause fora moment to look back, I fired 
__ three fluky shots at them ‘on the run.’ Not until the big beasts 
_ were behind a piece of rolling ground did I realise what a fool I 
__ had made of myself, and then, as we wanted meat badly, I took 
| a quiet steady shot at the little ram which had hung behind, 
| and killed him neatly at a good 400 yards—a shot which under 
| ordinary circumstances I should never dream of attempting. 
cc2 
