FINDING THE MISSING RAM. 251 



do. Evening was closing in ; it was not likely 

 they would go far, and one would probably die in 

 the night. Whilst debating over this, one got up 

 and walked across to the other. Thinking there 

 was now a chance of circumventing them from 

 above, I went round the top of the corrie and 

 down part of the way ; but by this time it was 

 getting too dark to see them distinctly, and I de- 

 cided, rather than risk disturbing them to no avail, 

 to go back to camp and return in the morning. 



We were up there early ; but they were earlier 

 still, and had both disappeared. Their tracks 

 showed that they had left their corrie and crossed 

 the plain below to the opposite hills, about a mile 

 off. There we discovered one of them lying in a 

 ravine pretty high up, which gave on to the plain. 

 The other was nowhere to be seen. 



As the wind was blowing up-hill, there was 

 nothing for it but to go upwards and get above 

 my beast. We had not gone 500 yards when 

 there were tracks of blood about, and a little 

 beyond lay the missing Ovis stone dead. This 

 was encouraging, so we continued after the other 

 one, having marked the place very carefully 

 beforehand; but on reaching the ravine not a 

 trace of him was visible. Close by was another 



