American Big-Game Hunting 



knees. But the judicious T (I have never 



hunted with a more careful and thorough 

 man) was right in the route he had chosen, 

 and after we had descended again to the edge 

 of the snow, we looked over a rock, and saw, 

 thirty yards below us, the nanny and kid for 

 which we had been aiming. I should have 

 said earlier that the gathering of yesterday 

 had dispersed during the night, and now little 

 bunches of three and four oroats could be seen 



o 



up and down the canon. We were on the 

 exact ground they had occupied, and their 

 many tracks were plain. My first shot missed 

 — thirty yards! — and as nanny and kid went 

 bounding by on the hill below, I knocked her 



over with a more careful bullet, and T 



shot the kid. The little thing was not dead 

 when we came up, and at the sight of us 

 it gave a poor little thin bleat that turns me 

 remorseful whenever I think of it. We had 

 all the justification that any code exacts. We 

 had no fresh meat, and among goats the kid 

 alone is eatable; and I justly desired speci- 

 mens of the entire family. 



We carried the whole kid to camp, and later 

 its flesh was excellent. The horns of the 



56 



