358 BIG GAME OP NORTH AMERICA. 



On the top of a ridge which ran at right-angles with the one 

 I was on — the two being separated by the gap before men- 

 tioned — I discovered a large buck Goat poking along on 

 "the very edge. The side of this ridge appeared to me to be 

 almost vertical, and its height about seven or eight hundred 

 feet. About half-way between it and the one I was on, the 

 smoke of our camp-fire curled up and drifted off in the 

 direction of Seamour Creek. 



This Goat appeared to care nothing for camp-fires. He 

 was going to come down the side of that ridge if he broke 

 his neck in the attempt; and so I sat down to watch him. 

 His distance from me was not over five hundred yards, and 

 with my glass I could watch every move he made. About 

 thirty yards beiow him, growing out of the side of the cliff, 

 was a bunch of broad-leaf plants, which the Indians had 

 told me were a favorite food of the Goat. This spot 

 appeared to be his objective point; and carefully he worked 

 his way down till he reached it, when he commenced 

 feeding. 



Just then I was startled by a leak, Jcak-Tcak just above me, 

 and looking up, discovered a flock of ptarmigan n<5t twenty 

 yards away. There were eight of them, and I shot them 

 all, firing seven shots; yet the Goat stood there as uncon- 

 cerned as if he were a thousand miles away. And still he 

 must have heard the shooting, because Dick, who was twice 

 as far away, and nearly in the same direction, heard every 

 shot. I felt somewhat disappointed, on picking up my 

 birds, to find that they were the black-tail instead of Lago- 

 pus leucurus. They were also in the last stage of summer 

 plumage, and scarcely fit specimens to mount. 



Hanging my game on the limb of a cypress, I reached 

 the top of the ridge, and found I commanded a view of the 

 opening into which my companions had gone through the 

 gap, and I at once began to look for them. Presently, I 

 discovered two dark objects beneath the shadow of a spread- 

 ing pine, which, with the aid of my glass, I made out to be 

 Dick and the younger Siwash; while farther on, near the 

 foot of the opposite ridge, was Seammux, creeping along as 



