SPORT AND TRAVEL 195 



made by wild sheep, and about an hour later sighted 

 the animals themselves. They were right on the top 

 of the mountain, which presented the appearance of 

 an undulating grassy plain, broken by stony ridges. 

 With my glasses I counted thirteen sheep, and was 

 disappointed to find that they were all ewes. They 

 had evidently been living on this mountain for some 

 time, as their tracks were everywhere to be seen. As 

 the ground was very open and the sheep were 

 constantly moving, feeding along against the wind, I 

 found it very difficult to approach them. At length, 

 however, I managed to kill one, a fine big old ewe 

 with only one horn, and as it was still early, resolved 

 to return to camp to get a horse, in order to carry the 

 carcass in whole, for the ascent had not seemed too 

 steep for a western American pony to negotiate. 



I got back to camp soon after midday, and returned 

 to the dead sheep in the afternoon, accompanied by 

 my wife and Graham. We got the horses up without 

 much difficulty, though we had of course to lead them 

 in all the steep places. The top of this mountain, 

 one of the Shoshone range, I think could not have 

 been more than thirteen thousand feet above sea level, 

 probably not quite so much. It was a gloriously fine 

 day without a cloud in the sky, and the air was keen 

 and bracing. When not making any particular exer- 

 tion, neither my wife nor I experienced any inconven- 

 ience from the rarefaction of the air ; but after firing 

 at the sheep in the morning I had found, when trying 



