384 AFTER A WOUNDED RAM. 



where with the glass I could see he once more lay down on 

 an open slope. It had now grown too late to follow him 

 that afternoon, so we proceeded to gralloch the dead beasts. 

 On the arrival of the jooboos, I sat down and thoroughly- 

 enjoyed a smoke whilst they were being packed with the 

 spoils. On our return to camp, a dram of whisky was 

 served out to all hands for celebrating this red-letter day 

 among the big sheep. I weighed one of the rams with 

 a portable machine I had brought with me — a Yankee 

 " notion " which was " calculated " to weigh correctly up to 

 360 lb. The figures were as follows : Weight, " clean," 

 350 lb. odd, or about 1 8 stone. Of this, the head alone (as 

 cut off for stuffing) was upwards of 5 lb., and perhaps 2 

 stone might be added for the gralloch, making a total of, 

 say, 2 stone. Not a bad weight for a sheep ! The horns 

 were good average specimens of their kind. The larger 

 pair would have measured quite 3 J feet round the curve 

 had not the tips been slightly broken. The other pair 

 were a few inches shorter, but equally thick (18 inches), 

 and their tips uninjured. 



The following day we were not long in again finding the 

 wounded ram, on a slope of the Lai Daka above the Ship- 

 chillum stream, and with the spy-glass I could distinctly 

 see his blood-stained haunch. He was slowly moving up- 

 wards, but ere long he lay down on an exposed ridge high 

 up on the range, from whence he evidently kept a sharp 

 look-out on all sides, as we noticed that his head was being 

 continually turned suspiciously about. It was necessary to 

 use the utmost caution in approaching him, for any wounded 

 wild animal is always hard to get near when not quite dis- 

 abled, let alone an Ovis Ammon. After making a round of 

 quite two miles, we had almost reached a spot which we had 

 judged to be within 200 yards of him, when, suddenly 

 taking alarm, he sprang to his feet. From the alacrity 

 with which he at once sped upward and disappeared over 

 the top of the range, it was evident that, although his 



