INTRUDERS ON THE SCENE. 335 



1 launch was badly wounded, no bone was broken ; and 

 having detected us on his track, he would most likely go a 

 very long distance without stopping, as a wounded beast on 

 being alarmed often will do. At any rate, this was the last 

 we ever saw of him, though possibly he fell to the rifle of 

 another si)ortsman, who, when hunting on this ground 

 shortly after us, killed a big ram there which had a 

 recently made wound in its haunch. 



On our way out in the early morning, several lots of 

 small horned rams and ewes had been seen, and during our 

 stalk after the wounded animal, we had noticed five rams 

 move over the top of the range. We had also descried in 

 the distance what we thought to be the eight remaining 

 rams of the flock I had thinned the day before; but as they 

 would now, most probably, be well on the alert, we turned 

 our attention to the five fresh ones, three of which carried 

 grand horns. We came upon them where they had stopped 

 to graze in a ravine on the north side of the range, and we 

 had just reached a spot from which, in another minute, I 

 should have got an easy chance within 150 yards, when 

 three other rams suddenly appeared, coming over the rise 

 on the far side of the ravine, and instantly catching sight of 

 us, turned tail and made off. Before I could get ready to 

 shoot at the rams in the ravine, they also, taking alarm at 

 the flight of the three intruders, started off at a gallop, and 

 put a good 300 yards between us and them before they 

 pulled up on the crest of a sloping spur, beyond another 

 ravine running down on our right into the one they had 

 just quitted. The first shot, sent at the big lord of the 

 fiock, knocked up the dust several yards short of him. 

 From not having seen us, and being far out, the animals 

 seemed only startled, so I had time for another chance. 

 Again the bullet fell short, but this time so close to the big 

 fellow's feet that it must have sent up the gravelly ground 

 against him. The beasts now got so bewildered that, instead 

 of at once disappearing behind the spur, as might ordinarily 



