IN THE FAR WEST. 343 



ever, for in its hungry meditation it paid no heed to surround- 

 ing- objects, so found itself unexpectedly among- a small flock 

 of rams, which had just emerged from a ravine, where they 

 had been drinking. "When it saw these new foes it looked 

 thoroughly scared and crestfallen, and attempted to flee from 

 the threatening eyes and heads, but before it could decide upon 

 its line of retreat the flock charged it from various directions 

 in a body, and one burly fellow, having horns on him like a 

 gnarled oak, struck it in the ribs with such terrific force that 

 he doubled it up, and sent it flying two or three yards away 

 with a velocity that must have scattered its wits, and caused 

 it to deplore the day that its love of mutton had induced it 

 to try and feast on lamb. 



13efore any of the others could assail it in flank it managed 

 to collect its sore and sadly dispersed faculties, and placing its 

 tail between its legs, it got up and dusted down that mountain 

 side at a higher rate of speed than ever it did before ; and 

 right glad it seemed, when it found itself beyond the 

 reach of those powerful battering-rams. I was so much 

 interested in the scene, and laughed so heartily at the discom- 

 fiture and terror of the runaway, that the flock got beyond the 

 reach of my shot-gun before I recovered myself sufficiently 

 to think of attempting to shoot one. Had I tried it, however, 

 it is doubtful if I would have been successful, as I did not 

 expect to meet them in that quarter, and they were so vigilant 

 that it would have been only by the merest chance that I could 

 have approached them near enough to get a shot. Although 

 these animals are exceedingly timid in the presence of man, 

 and wildly flee before him, yet they will not hesitate a moment 

 to face any ordinary foe and to render a good account of them- 

 selves in a combat. In their usual haunts they are, however, 

 free from nearly all enemies except man, and what few they 

 have they can easily elude by their vigilance and caution, and 

 the inaccessible character of their country. 



The bighorn bears very little resemblance to the domestic 

 species; but it is almost a perfect copy, except in size, of the 

 Asiatic wild sheep (Ocis ammoii), and it is also like it in 

 character. It is, in the first place, more like a deer in outline 



