350 BIG GAME OP NORTH AMERICA. 



out the opening from view, was a rocky, moss-covered 

 ridge, up the side of which we crept, and cautiously peered 

 over the top. There, within one hundred yards, were three 

 ■Croats quietly feeding, apparently unconscious of our 

 approach; while farther on, and about four hundred feet 

 farther up, perched on the pinnacle of a rock, stood a large 

 buck Gfoat, whose attention was apparently attracted by 

 the prospect of fresh feeding-grounds on the mountains 

 across the valley. Or he might have been a sentinel watch- 

 ing over the safety of his three companions in the little 

 opening below him. If so, he was a careless one, for his 

 position commanded a clear view of the rock on which we 

 Jay, and no warning of our approach had been given. 



Choosing our victims, we fired, and the three dropped 

 almost in their tracks. Hastily throwing a fresh cartridge 

 into my rifle, I turned to look for the sentinel, but he had 

 disappeared. In an instant, Charley was off, dropping 

 powder and ball into his old muzzle-loader as he ran; and 

 while I was engaged in taking measurements of the three 

 we had killed, the loud report of his musket sounded far 

 up the mountain-side, and presently he appeared on the 

 point of rock on which we had first discovered the sentinel, 

 and, shouting down the warning " Klosh nanitcTi! '" (look 

 out), before I could utter a word to prevent him, he tumbled 

 the carcass of the unfortunate Groat over the cliff. Down it 

 came, a limp, shaggy, white mass, bounding from crag to 

 crag, till it reached the flat on which we stood, shattered 

 and torn beyond use. Its horns were split into shreds, its 

 jaws broken, and great patches of hair cut clean from the 

 skin — in fact, it was useless as a specimen. 



I felt annoyed, and only awaited the approach of Charley 

 to give him a severe reprimand. But the old hunter, chaf- 

 ing under Charley' s success, and indignant at his presump- 

 tion in acting without orders, at once opened out upon him 

 with a burst of eloquence that, to anyone conversant with 

 the guttural oratory of the Indian, must have been scathing 

 in the extreme. He concluded by informing Charley that 

 we were collecting the skins of animals and birds solely in 



