IN THE FAR WEST. 337 



recalled to it. Running at our best speed towards a series of 

 boulders that marked the line of a canyon, we reached there 

 in time to see the Hock bounding upward again, but ere they 

 disappeared we managed to get a rather indifferent shot at a 

 couple in the rear, at a distance of about one hundred yards. 

 We did not expect to claim any prizes from that etl'ort ; but 

 we concluded to search, nevertheless, in hopes that we might 

 have wounded one at least. Great, therefore, was our satisfac- 

 tion to find a handsome kid stretched dead on the ground, and 

 a trail of blood a little further on, a proof that another had 

 been seriously wounded. Following this gory pathway for a 

 distance of several hundred yards, we reached a clump of 

 dwarf pines, and there found a yearling ram in the last throes 

 of dissolution. An examination revealed the fact that he was 

 shot through the heart, so we were not a little surprised at his 

 tenacity of life. Shouldering the slain, we returned to camp, 

 and feasted that night on tender kid. Having satisfied to 

 the fullest an ambition of mine, we broke up our quarters, 

 and four days after were back in Deer Lodge, I, for one, being 

 highly pleased with our good fortune. 



To hunt the mountain goat successfully one must be 

 cautious, patient, and persevering, and he who can exercise 

 these faculties need have little fear of not placing a few among 

 his trophies of the chase. lie may have to dare crags and 

 chasms, but as sport means exercising a person's mental and 

 physical qualities against those of wild animals, few care for 

 dangers and annoyances in comparison to the success achieved. 

 This goat will, it is said by old hunters, charge its human foe 

 if it thinks it cannot escape otherwise, and display its butting 

 power to as good advantage as the domestic species. It prefers 

 to seek safety in flight if it can, however, and does not hesitate 

 a moment to plunge into a precipice to escape threatened 

 danger. Fabulous tales are told about its immunity from 

 injury in these terrific leaps, yet it is no more daring than 

 the ibex or chamois, nor is it superior to them in passing 

 over pendent crags, vaulting gloomy precipices, or clambering 

 up the most stupendous ascents. Hunting it is much the 

 same in character as pursuing these animals, except, perhaps, 



