GOATS AND SHEEP IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 233 



goats became alarmed and moved up on to a higher ledge, 

 dislodging on their way many stones, which gathering impe- 

 tus as they descended whizzed and bounded past us like 

 cannon-balls. It was most enjoyable, the more so because 

 when at last arrived at a certain rock utterly beat, I blazed 

 away cartridge after cartridge without a single hit. C., who 

 had heard the fusillade but could see nothing, naturally 

 thought that I had bagged at least a dozen, and was greatly 

 disappointed with my shooting! 



During our march further up this valley, which became 

 more and more picturesque as it narrowed, we saw several 

 more bunches of goats, which, however, always escaped us until 

 one day six fell to our '303's; they had very good heads, but 

 unfortunately two were broken in the terrible fall they got when 

 hit on to the rocks below. The Stony Indians, who were 

 hunting in this valley when we again passed through on our 

 return march, had killed over forty goats here in their wholesale 

 manner. If only game laws could be framed for and enforced 

 against Indians generally, how much more plentiful would game 

 of all kinds in Canada become ! 



We then crossed the Saskatchewan River and encamped after 

 several marches just above the timber line at an altitude of 

 over 7,000 feet and well in the sheep country. 



We found these deer-like animals much more difficult to 

 approach than the goats, far more wary and ever watchful ; the 

 rams, surrounded by ewes placed as vedettes all round their lords, 

 were ever ready to give instant warning of danger, when the 

 herd would disappear as if by magic. They live among the 

 highest mountain ranges on patches of coarse grass growing 

 on the almost bare rock, coming down in winter with the snow. 

 Lovely views we had of the surrounding country, especially 

 from the " sheep " mountain, thus named because here we saw 

 our first herd. Across a very narrow deep valley lay a huge 

 glacier surrounded by lofty snow peaks, the glacier ending far 

 below in a wall of deep -blue ice several hundred feet thick into 

 which Nature had carved two lovely grottoes, birthplaces of the 

 Saskatchewan and Athabasca Rivers, infants here but soon to 

 become giant streams and flowing in opposite directions. The 

 weather had been perfect all the time, with hard frost at night, 

 but here the first snow fell which, however, did not remain long 



