62 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



fifteen yards, before it took to wing, and went farther down 

 the stream. Anxious to procure a new specimen, I follow- 

 ed till almost a mile lay between me and my fish. To save 

 distance in returning, I determined to cut across the angle 

 formed by the bend of the river, and had progressed about 

 half-way when I saw a female musk -sheep coining after 

 me. When a lad in the Highlands, I had got dreadfully 

 punished by a tup, and the remembrances of the event had 

 not yet been forgotten. A mountain ram is a small beast 

 compared to my present pursuer, and he was able to do 

 enough mischief. The ground was very roughly sprinkled 

 with boulders, some of great size, and for the most inac- 

 cessible of those I made the best speed I could muster, and 

 only succeeded in gaining a place of safety when the ewe's 

 horns were within a foot or two of my hurdies. For over 

 an hour sh'e kept watch on me ; and, worse than all, when I 

 got back to my fish, some vermin or other had carried all 

 the best ones off, and it was getting too late to catch a new 

 mess. When at the fort, the Indians soon explained the 

 reasons of this unprovoked attack, and proved the correct- 

 ness of their assertion by shooting the mother next morn- 

 ing and bringing the lamb home, which we were unable to 

 keep alive for over three days, much to the regret of all." 



The second adventure is a repetition of the inexcusable 

 folly of not immediately loading your gun before approach- 

 ing wounded game. "In stalking some barren caribou, 

 eight musk -sheep crossed directly between me and the 

 deer. I was well hid at the time, so that they came un- 

 suspiciously within thirty yards. In a moment I gave them 

 both barrels. To the first shot an old buck dropped, and - 

 rolled into a ravine; the second barrel crippled a three- 

 quarter grown sheep so badly that I knew less than a mile 

 would lay her up. In my hurry to secure the old one, with- 

 out loading I hurried to the ravine. There he was, as I 





