340 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



than by laboriously following 1 it amid the snow-enshrouded 

 mountains which it selects for a home. The amateur hunter 

 who would, therefore, slay a large number, must move to the 

 distant regions of the North-west, and there he will find little 

 cause to complain of ill-luck. Few creatures are more difficult 

 of approach than the bighorn, for, like all mountain animals, 

 it is exceedingly keen of scent, unusually vigilant, and so 

 cautious that it carefully reconnoitres a country from an 

 elevated stand-point ere it presumes to advance towards it. 

 The Nimrod who would, therefore, place the heads of many 

 among 1 his trophies of the chase must be not only of an active 

 and vigorous form, to bear steep mountain climbing and a 

 rarified atmosphere, but he must also possess the qualities of 

 patience, perseverance and hardihood, for its pursuit may 

 lead him through deep and gloomy precipices, over ground 

 so stony and rough as to seem impassable, and amid pinnacles 

 whose towering altitudes and craggy sides make their ascent 

 almost as difficult as many of the famous peaks of the Alps. 

 In early summer, however, it may be found at elevations of 

 only four or five thousand feet above the level of the sea, but 

 from May to September, or as soon as the lambkins are aide 

 to travel, it moves higher up, for the greater safety of the 

 young, and to secure the dainty vegetation that grows in 

 every available spot as soon as the snow disappears. 



Though the favourite habitats of this animal are rugged 

 hills and mountains, yet it will also thrive in a rough and 

 broken country where the herbage is not only coarse but 

 scanty, provided there are rocky steeps and dark chasms within 

 convenient distance to which it can retreat when alarmed, or 

 when it is pursued by foes. AVhen a (lock is migrating to 

 pastures new, the sentinels or leaders carefully scrutinize the 

 country before them from every commanding position, and 

 when they are satisfied with its appearance the whole party 

 advance boldly, and having made it their head- quarters, throw 

 out vedettes, generally males, which mount guard on elevated 

 crags or hillocks, and vigilantly survev their surroundings 

 until their companions have dined, when all seek shelter amidst 

 crags, small pine or fir coppices, and inaccessible shelves of 



