SARDINIA ANh ITS WILD SHEEP 33 



to get down llic slope below us, wliidi was in view. Wc 

 ought to have rciuriKMl uloiio- the rulge lor a mile, to 

 where a hollow would have covered us. but to sa\e a 

 quarter of an houi' wc clipiicd il. 1 laiicicd ihcrc was 

 a little raviiu' liclow us. but the sh')pe proved paiid'iilK 

 smootli. and the covci't was unusually thin and the snow 

 abominably white. Having got a third of the way down 

 in safety, slithering doi^-a-fc }•)•(' , we could not slither up 

 again, and had to risk it. Now these crafty sheep 

 practised a dirt}^ little trick, which we observed on more 

 than one previous occasion. They really saAv us all the time, 

 hwt jpreteiided t\\A\ they did not, and remained apparently 

 unconscious until wc disappeared from their sight into the 

 gully »»f the stream, when they instantly departed. Fortu- 

 nately we had left IJenjamin on the top of the ridge with 

 a tclcscojie to guard against such a contingency. 1^'indino- 

 them gone we now signalled him to join us. He had seen 

 that their heads were turned towards us, but they did not 

 even rise from their beds until thev thouQ-ht their de- 

 part ure would be unobserved. They then scpai'ate(l into 

 two parties, but IJcnjamin had kept his glass (»ii the 

 patriarch ami two or three olhers wIkj accompanied him. 

 lie reported that they had passed over a shouMci' of ihc 

 mountain towards a ciM'tain dec]') corrie which we knew 

 to be ;i l',i\ourite sanctuary. WC now made a bi<»- detour, 

 as we should lia\e done in the first instance, and at len<'-th 

 reached the rim of this basin. From here, after a long 

 search, wc again discovered them. To approach was a 

 ditfereiil business in this concave hollow. for >e\-cial 

 lioui's we wound ourselves about among the low bushes, 

 and lioirib!\- cdlij work" was this Hat crawlincr in powderv 



D 



