368 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



ever have the opportunities that I have been fortunate 

 enough to enjoy for hunting and studying this game, I 

 will narrate some of the incidents of a trip I made into this 

 northern range in the autumn of 1887. 



We had traveled on horseback — carrying our camp 

 sux)plies on pack-animals— a distance of one hundred and 

 eighty-five miles from Spokane Falls, and on arriving at 

 Loomis' ranch, the last one we were to pass before starting 

 up the mountain, we deposited there all our provisions 

 except enough to last us five days, and on the following 

 morning started on the trail that leads through the foot-hills 

 to and up Mount Chopaca. 



We reached timber-line, on the first peak, late in the 

 afternoon, and hunted there that evening, but saw no signs 

 of Sheep, though we found plenty of Deer, and killed one 

 fawn for present use. 



Before dark I prospected the range, and seeing another 

 peak about three miles northwest that looked better, we 

 started for it at daylight next morning, with our rifles and 

 saddle-horses, leaving everything else behind. We reached 

 the base of it, and rode our horses up as far as they could 

 go. Then we picketed them on a grassy bench, and pro- 

 ceeded to climb to the top on foot. 



We separated soon after leaving our horses. When I 

 reached the summit, I took out my field-glass, adjusted it, 

 and commenced to sweep the surrounding country for 

 game. I had just got fairly settled down to looking, when 

 I saw a large band of animals quietly feeding along the 

 side of a spur of the mountain nearly a mile away, and 

 several hundred feet below me. At first, it was difficult to 

 determine whether they were Mountain Sheep or Deer, but 

 a minute' s scrutiny revealed the fact that they were Ovis 

 Montana. I had now no interest in whatever else might be 

 seen from the peak, and returning the field-glass to its case, 

 I made a hurried descent from the summit, to get to the 

 diverging ridge on which the Sheep were. 



And here let me digress to say that a good field-glass is 

 an almost indispensable item in a hunting-outfit for the 



