350 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



Continuing- our course upward, and still against the wind, 

 we scrambled and stumbled about for about an hour, and 

 finally reached a small plateau which gave us a commanding 

 view over a large area of the mountains. Sweeping it in 

 every direction with a glass, I could see no traces of sheep 

 there ; but not so my companion, for he called my attention 

 to some irregular specks that loomed against the horizon 

 far to the north. After watching them carefully for several 

 minutes I discovered they were groups of sheep that were 

 migrating to pastures new ; so we made preparations to inter- 

 cept them, Hunning toward them with all possible haste, we 

 got so near in less than an hour that we commenced stalking 

 them. Moving towards the summit, we gained a position a 

 little above them, at a distance of perhaps two hundred yards, 

 before our haste caused us to be detected by a vigilant old ram, 

 whose eyes seemed to be ubiquitous, for we were often com- 

 pelled to throw ourselves flat on the sharp stones to avoid his 

 piercing gaze, when we supposed he was interested in his food. 



As soon as he announced our presence by a hissing snort the 

 animals, which were widely scattered, ran together in a bunch, 

 but before they decided upon moving we fired at them four 

 times in rapid succession, and when the smoke cleared away 

 we saw two young rams and a lambkin on the ground ; but 

 we inferred that we had wounded others, as we found drops 

 of blood on their line of flight. Being too well satisfied with 

 our good luck to follow the fugitives, we turned our attention 

 to preparing our captures for transportation homewards. 



It seems to be a characteristic of the bighorns that 

 when they are first startled they rush together and remain 

 bunched up for a short time previous to their flight, as if 

 they were dazed, and that is the best time to shoot at them, 

 as one shot then is worth half a dozen when they are 

 fleeing. While moving down the mountain we espied 

 a sturdy ram stalking about, as if he were monarch of 

 all he surveyed, and his stately mien and vigorous action 

 caused me to long so much for his horns that I resolved to 

 capture him if possible. Leaving my companion with the 

 "drag "of mutton, I crawled carefully towards a clump of 



