62 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
fifteen yards, before it took to wing, and went farther down 
the stream. Anxious to procure a new specimen, I follow- 
ed till almost a mile lay between me and my fish. To save 
distance in returning, I determined to cut across the angle 
formed by the bend of the river, and had progressed about 
half-way when I saw a female musk-sheep coming after 
me. When a lad in the Highlands, I had got dreadfully 
punished by a tup, and the remembrances of the event had 
not yet been forgotten. A mountain ram is a small beast 
compared to my present pursuer, and he was able to do 
enough mischief. The ground was very roughly sprinkled 
with boulders, some of great size, and for the most inac- 
cessible of those I made the best speed I could muster, and 
only succeeded in gaining a place of safety when the ewe’s 
horns were within a foot or two of my hurdies. For over 
an hour she kept w&tch on me; and, worse than all, when I 
got back to my fish, some vermin or other had carried all 
the best ones off, and it was getting too late to catch a new 
mess. When at the fort, the Indians soon explained the 
reasons of this unprovoked attack, and proved the correct- 
ness of their assertion by shooting the mother next morn- 
ing and bringing the lamb home, which we were unable to 
keep alive for over three days, much to the regret of all.” 
The second adventure is a repetition of the inexcusable 
folly of not inimediately loading your gun before approach- 
ing wounded game. “In stalking some barren caribou, 
eight musk-sheep crossed directly between me and the 
deer. I was well hid at the time, so that they came un- 
suspiciously within thirty yards. In a moment I gave them 
both barrels. To the first shot an old buck dropped, and 
rolled into a ravine; the second barrel crippled a three- 
quarter grown sheep so badly that I knew less than a mile 
would lay her up. In my hurry to secure the old one, with- 
out loading I hurried to the ravine. There he was, as I 
