THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 369 



mountains. It often saves one long walks and weary climbs. 

 By its aid you may often turn a black log into a Bear, a few 

 gray rocks into a bunch of Sheep or Deer, or vice versa. 

 By its aid you may often find game on what appears to be 

 open, unoccupied ground, and where you would not think 

 of going to look for game if you did not first see it there. 

 Then you have a great advantage in stalking the game if 

 you know exactly where it is while so far away. You 

 would often frighten it by a noisy misstep, or by approaching 

 it from the windward, if you did not know its exact where- 

 abouts. I should never have seen this band of Sheep at all 

 had I not had the glass, for they were on ground that I 

 should not have considered favorable, and should never 

 have gone there to look for them. Furthermore, the glass 

 is useful in picking out routes through an unknown coun- 

 try. You may often see, by the aid of the glass, and from 

 a promontory, a trail, miles away, winding up or down 

 the side of a mountain, or along a stream, or over a prairie, 

 that you would never have found with the naked eye. 

 You may, with it, find broad fields of impassable slide- 

 rock, or great swamps, in time to avoid them, where to 

 the naked eye all looked fair. A good field-glass costs 

 but a few dollars, weighs only a pound or two, and, to 

 a hunter in the mountains, is often worth its weight in 

 gold. 



When I got down onto the lower ridge, where I was out 

 of sight of the Sheep, my next precaution was to make a 

 wide detour, to get to the leeward of them. Then, being 

 within a few hundred yards of them, I started with cautious, 

 cat-like tread to move toward them. The hill was covered 

 with "chip rocks" — that is, small flakes of shale, over 

 which it was almost impossible to walk without making 

 some noise; but my feet being shod with moccasins, I was 

 able, by exercising the utmost care, to move quietly. How- 

 ever, when I reached the top of the ridge opposite where I 

 thought the Sheep should be, and peered cautiously over, 

 there stood the old ram, evidently the sultan who ruled 

 this large harem, looking at me. 



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