116 SHORT STALKS 



found I had started an unusual Iv laro-e bear. I never o-ot 

 a sight of him, and I am not sure that I shouhl have eared 

 to tackle him if I had. It is all but impossible to Avalk 

 silently in snow that has melted and frozen again. I 

 think we were rather unfortunate in that neither of us i^ot 

 a chance at a bear on this trip. Nor were any of the re- 

 mains of kills which we revisited touched. Perhaps they 

 were temporarily scarce in that part, for bears shift their 

 quarters a great deal. But with the best opportunities 

 very few are killed by ordinary sportsmen in fair hunting. 

 The great majority one hears of are obtained with the 

 assistance of a 60 -lb. iron trap. 



On my return to camp I found that during the tem- 

 porary absence of our men the fire had spread to the 

 surrounding grass. The men were just in time to save 

 their blankets, but one of the tents was burnt, and for 

 the rest of the trip they had to shelter under one of 

 those make-shifts which AVesterners so readily contrive. 

 Another two minutes and every article which we possessed, 

 except the clothes we stood in, would have gone up in 

 smoke. 



We now moved camp into the basin, determined to 

 leave no stone unturned to secure a ram or two ; but till 

 the very last, though we saw some ewes on more than one 

 occasion, and were frequently tantalised by fresh tracks in 

 the timber, we got no chance at a big one. The last day 

 before our intended departure had arrived, Gerald had 

 searched in vain for most of the day, when Bob, by a fine 

 piece of spying in the bright interval between two snow- 

 storms, made out a band of old rams feeding; in a canon 

 on the opposite side of the valley in which our camp was 



