IN THE FAR WEST. 353 



and causing me to practise shampooing- when there was no 

 necessity for it. I was fully resolved to have him at the next 

 shot, even if he bore an enchanted life, so I put my teeth 

 tog-ether and grasped the rifle firmly in my hand. On round- 

 ing the boulder behind which he had disappeared, I scanned 

 the rocks around me, but I could see nothing of him. This 

 was another surprise and disappointment, for I knew he was 

 so severely wounded that he could not run very far without 

 being compelled to lie down and rest. Supposing he had 

 headed for the mountain, I moved forward, but I had not gone 

 twenty paces before I saw him lying, face downward, behind 

 a few shrubs, and as dead as a door nail. My work was over 

 then ; all disappointments had vanished like magic ; and the 

 memory of the stomach-ache and the rocky seat only re- 

 mained; but these were atoned for by making a chair of the ram 

 for a time. After a short rest, I made a drag of a bough, and 

 hauled my victim down the mountain side as proudly as if I 

 had captured several hundred. This feeling was the result of 

 youthful exuberance and inexperience, and was probably 

 natural, so I only refer to it now to merely say that one hard- 

 won success is more highly prized than many won with ease. 

 It is no easy matter at any time to bag a bighorn, unless cir- 

 cumstances are unusually favourable, but I never saw one 

 which gave me as much trouble to capture as this one, so it 

 remains indelibly marked in my memory. 



When I reached my companion I found he had cached all 

 the animals, as he did not know when I would return, and he 

 feared to leave them to the mercies of bears or wolves. As we 

 did not expect to be able to find any more sheep until evening, 

 when they would come out to graze, we decided upon return- 

 ing home, as we had been more successful than the most 

 sanguine could have anticipated, and we cared more for sport 

 than the pot. It is always a difficult matter to make a big 

 bag of sheep, owing to their inaccessible haunts and their 

 timidity and vigilance, especially in regions where they are 

 hunted much, so we were not a little pleased with our good 

 fortune. We attributed it, however, to the abundance of the 

 animals, the excellence of the ground for stalking them, and 



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