CHAPTER XVII 



A DAY WITH A RAM 



IT was on September 25th that our luck turned. 

 The morning dawned clear and bright, and we 

 were off at sunrise, our way lying for the first 

 mile or so along the banks of the little mountain 

 river on the north bank of which we were camped. 

 We had settled the night before that George was 

 to hunt on the " Matterhorn," as we had christened 

 the snow-covered triangular mass of rock which 

 rose at the far end of the valley. I branched off 

 to the north with Lao-Wei, as I had seen a num- 

 ber of ewes with a ram on this ground a few days 

 before, without being able to get near them. We 

 went for half a mile through thick bush, past a 

 woodcutter's camp, and presently emerged on a 

 small flat from which a steep ridge gradually rose 

 to the higher tops. Hardly had we pulled out our 

 glasses when rny hunter exclaimed, **Ngaiyangt" 

 Far, far above me, where the first rays of the 

 morning sun were just striking, I saw four ewes. 

 They were leisurely walking over the skyline, 

 stopping to nibble every now and again and gazing 

 down into the shadows of the valley below them. 



We hurried on through the belt of trees which 

 grew along the lower slopes of the valley, and at 



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