342 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



of salt, for though I have seen them make some terrific 

 plunges, and some which I thought would result in their in- 

 stantaneous destruction, yet they escaped uninjured, not, how- 

 ever, because they alighted on their horns, but on their feet, 

 and these being- enveloped in a corneous and elastic covering, 

 capable of bearing a severe shock, they were able to scamper 

 away as easily after their bounds as if they had never made 

 them. The broken tips of the horns, and the often scaled or 

 split character of portions of their outer rind, are supposed by 

 old hunters to be the result of falling on them constantly; 

 but this is evidently a mistake, and is due to the habit the 

 animals have of using their appendages to aid them in 

 climbing steep and stony places. The rams also use them 

 freely enough in combats, and this undoubtedly causes the 

 scaling or splitting, for they must be hard indeed if they can 

 resist uninjured the terrific force with which two warriors, 

 weighing from one to over two hundred pounds each, strike each 

 other. These combats are waged according to the rules in 

 existence among the domestic species, but, owing to the 

 closeness of the horns and their forward projection, the 

 animals do not suffer so much from headache after the contests 

 as the latter; nor do they seem to be so fond of causeless 

 warfare. 



Both sexes are adorned with head appendages, but they are 

 rather light on the females, those of a veteran great grand- 

 mother not being larger than those of a two-year-old male. 

 They are also less recurved, being more like those of a goat; 

 yet they are most effective weapons in an assault, as prowling 

 foxes, wolves, and wild cats have learned to their sorrow. I 

 once saw a wolf trying to make a delicious repast off a lamb 

 three or four months old, which it caught in a bit of wood 

 during the temporary absence of the mother; but ere it could 

 kill it the latter arrived, most unexpectedly? on the scene, and 

 charging the bandit with the greatest vehemence, gave it such 

 a crushing blow on the ribs that it was glad to beat as rapid a 

 retreat as its stomach-ache would permit, while mother and 

 lamb trotted off up the mountain. 



The skulking brute, which looked thoroughly disappointed, 

 sore, and heart-sick, was not through with its troubles, how- 



