Volume VII. 



RECREATION. 



DECEMBER, J897. 

 G. 0. SHIELDS (COQUINA), Editor and Manager. 



Number 6. 



A RAM AND SOME GRIZZLIES. 



HON. L. A. HUFFMAN. 



I have just read an article by " Syra- 

 cuse " in which he says an animal shot 

 through the heart will drop in his 

 tracks. Long ago I would, like Syra- 

 cuse, have thought Van Dyke's story 

 of an elk running ioo yards — or any 

 distance — after being shot through 

 the heart, "fishy;" but 2 instances 

 that came under my personal notice 

 have convinced me that at least bears 

 and mountain sheep will make a good 

 many tracks, sometimes, after being 

 pierced through the heart. 



The first was the case of an old ram. 

 Away back in the buffalo days, Joe 

 Spence and I were crossing the Little 

 Sheep mountains, between the Big 

 Missouri and the Yellowstone. The 

 climb was steep and we were leading 

 our saddle animals and carrying our 

 45-120 Sharps, ready for trouble. 

 When just at the notch where the buf- 

 falo trail then reached the summit, 

 and where, to this day, the saddle trail 

 dips toward the " Dad of Waters," 

 we rested and made a search of the 

 weird tangle of badland, buttes and 

 gulches around us. We were looking 

 for game and spying out the trail 

 ahead. 



There was no game in sight and we 

 were about to remount, when, on the 

 crest of a little round butte, just in 

 front of us, up rose a noble old big- 

 horn ram. One leap carried him out 

 of sight, but not until each of us had 

 taken a snap shot. Each turned to the 

 other, and asked " Did you shoot? " 



The canyon that is shown in the 

 background of the photograph is 





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DOWN IN THE CANYON. 



steep and rough. A man could scarce- 

 ly cross it in half an hour, where that 

 sheep plunged into it. W r e found him 

 on top of the farther wall, stone dead, 

 with more than an inch of the point 

 of his heart torn off by the bullet, that 

 had hit him back of the shoulder. 



We had to wait for our wagon train 

 to come up, and spent the time in dis- 

 secting and discussing what, to both 

 of us, was a mystery — that the old 

 turk had been able to find his way 

 down into that gulch; but, stranger 

 still, that he could climb out again, 

 with such a wound as that. 



423 



