144 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 21, 1897. 
less lying at our'biK'main camp and trying to make a suc- 
cessful hunt from it, for the game was getting wild, and it 
was too far to go and get back each day. McChesney was 
getting tired out, though I had hardly made a day's hunt 
since I got my sheep, as we all wanted Mac to get his head 
sure. Under the circumstances we determined to make a 
side trip further up into the country, lying out for a night 
or so and trying to get in where the sheep were without 
alarming them so much. Schultz, McChesney, O-to-ko-mi 
and I made up this party, and we bad no easy task ahead 
of us, for camping out in the winter with only what you 
carry is no light job. McChesney took only a part of his 
sleeping bag, and I split my blankets. Schultz and O-to- 
ko-mi took no blankets at all, only their heavy overcoats. 
We had a small lodge made of light stuff, and this with 
pur scanty grub and selected small belongings made up a 
good load for each. We pulled out early in the morning 
and shoed it up through the creek valley to a place where 
John Monroe and I had found the creek nearly frozen 
across. Here we cut a little tree and went over the gap in 
the ice bridi?e. From that time on, across Sheep Creek up 
to the upper Two Medicine Lake, we had an awful climb, 
uphill all the way and most of the time on a grade like a 
house roof. In places it would take many moments to get 
over the drifted snow -which lay across the easiest place of 
ascent on some sharp ridge, and often we had to tack up a 
long steep hill, where the slope was too sharp for the web 
shoes to hold. It was straining, breath-taking work, and 
we were glad when we topped the summit and saw out 
over the second lake. 
But what a prospect that was! The whole face of the 
lake as we looked became swallowed up in a shifting 
shield of white, which cut off all sight of the opposite 
shore. The wind was cutting in its cold, and the moun- 
tains were black and threatening. Earely have I seen a 
more forbiddinsr corner of the mountains than this about 
the upper Two Medicine, as it seemed to us that day. 
Camplngr In the Snow. 
We bent under our packs as we faced this sharp wind, 
and at last got to the cover of the woods on the other side 
of the frozen lake. Here we hunted for a long time for a 
place to make our little bivouac, but had trouble to get a 
suitable spot. We needed plenty of firewood close at 
hand, for we would be obliged to keep the fire going all 
night. We needed plenty of boughs, of course, and we re- 
quired a sheltered corner, where the wind would notstrik-e 
us, and where the smoke would be carried away and not 
into our camp. We took nearly an hour exploring befoie 
we set upon a location, finding a likely-looking spot under 
a big, leaning spruce which topped a short and steep little 
bank. As it turned out, this was about the worst place w e 
could have found, though we could not tell that until we 
had taken away the deep covering of snow. When we did 
get it dug away, some 5ft. deep, we discovered that we had 
pitched upon the bottom of a little creek, which carried a 
covering of a foot or so of solid ice. It was too much labor 
to change, so we decided to camp on top of the creek. We 
cut away the ice with the axe, and so built a fire on the 
bottom of the creek. Back of this we made our pile cf 
boughs for a bed, and soon our fire was eating away at the 
snow bank opposite, till we could see twenty different 
strata of snow and ice showing in the cut face of the hole, 
annotating the effect of so many snowfalls and so many 
different Chinooks. In the snow pit we put up our little 
lodge roughly, simply using it as the back for an open- 
faced camp, the fire being in front of us at the bottom of 
our den. It was well on in the afternoon before we got 
ready for the night, for, though we were not more than 
eight miles from the main camp we had left, the morning 
march had been a long and slow one, and the making of a 
camp dare not be slighted when the weather is far below 
the zero point. We were tired that night as we sat down 
to a rather dismal supper in the snow. It had snowed all 
the afternoon, and snowed and blew incessantly almost all 
night. Our Indian was glum and silent and Schultz was 
not very chirk himself. Yet, though he had no dishes, no 
spoons and no forks, Schultz went about the task of getting 
supper as though he has always done it under just such 
conditions. He dug the frozen pork and beans out of the 
vessels and placed them on the snow, while he was frying 
a slapjack or two in the single pan. He got a pot of tea 
done meantime, and in a while we all felt a little better, 
after a meal of beans, bannocks and tea. Night fell very 
dark and stormy and forbidding, and we did not do mucK 
talking. Neither did we do very much sleeping, Schultz 
and the Indian least of all, for they had no blankets, and 
so had to keep close to the fire, which was constantly in 
need of replenishing. 
Before we had our supper eaten — and indeed within a 
short time after we got to camp — O-to-ko-mi had espied on 
the far-off' face of Eising Wolf Mountain a pair of moun- 
tain sheep, which fed in view for some time. The sight 
of our game was the only cheerful thing we had to think 
about in camp that night. All around us was a cold, 
grand prospect. We were in the depth of the Eockies in 
midwinter. Our little camp was pitched within two miles 
of the summit of the main ridge of the Continenal Divide. 
That country in the winter, I may say, is not an inviting 
one. The impression is rather one that a fellow is not 
wanted there. 
All night the soft snow fell, and in the morning spits 
and squalls and determined storms came rushing down 
the front of grand old Eising Wolf, blotting out at times 
all the view of the steep and ice-covered rocks which were 
to be our hunting grounds. At breakfast we were silent, 
O-to-ko-mi only saying something to Schultz in'Piegan. I 
asked him what the Indian was saying, and Schultz re- 
plied, "He says it makes a man feel mighty poor to sit 
around an outfit like this after sleeping cold all night." In 
truth, our breakfast was not very heavy; and by some rea- 
son it appeared that breakfast was about all we were 
going to get, for Schultz said our grub was nearly out, as 
it had been impossible to pack any more than we did. 
This was news to me, but it seemed very likely we would 
have to kill some game that day or go hungry. 
The Medicine Birds. 
, As we sat at breakfast, each man covering his plate of 
broken bannock with his arm to keep the snow out of it, 
O-to-ko mi suddenly smiled and talked fast in Piegan, 
pointing out over the lake. There was a whole flight of 
his medicine birds, the ravens, all calling and pitching 
and tumbling, a couple of dozen of them. This, O-to-ko-mi 
said, was a certain omen of good luck, and he brightened 
visibly , He said that these ravens were young ones, and 
that the old birds were teaching them to fly. At this I 
was surprised, but he said that the nesting time of the 
raven is in midwinter, the eggs being laid at about what 
is our Christmas time. How the young birds live thus in 
the middle of such a winter is a mystery to me, but this 
makes only further proof to the Indian mind of the wisdom 
of this bird. 
After breakfast Schultz told me that he and McChesney 
were goina to hunt together, and that they were going to 
take the Eising Wolf country for their field trying to get 
to the two sheep which had been seen the day before. 
Therefore, O-to-ko-mi and I were to have our first day 
together, and we drew the opposite side of the lake for our 
country. 
When the Indian and I started out I saw him look 
long and carefiflly at the peaks which shut in the upper 
part of our little va ley. Just above our lake the valley 
divided, and off to the left arose a series of singularly rag- 
ged and abrupt needle peaks. Here John Monroe and 
O-to-ko-mi said was a splendid place for sheep, and more 
especially for goats. O-to-ko-mi evidently wanted to try 
this, but concluded that it was too icy, or too far, or too 
something; at any rate he turned away and struck out in 
another direction, directly up the face of the big mountain 
which faces Eising Wolf across the upper Two Medicine. 
By what signs and words I could understand, I in- 
ferred that he thought the sharp peaks too stormy for us, 
but in anv event I thought it would be best to trust abso- 
lutely to his judgment in all matters of the hunt. So I 
did not say anything, but followed him as best I could up 
the mountain. It was a long, hard, snowy, icy climb, and 
when we got up pretty near to the rim rock on top of the 
peak we were obliged to cut steps in the ice, one at a time, 
in order to get along at all. A little slip would have 
meant a very long and rapid slide about then, with no 
choice place for a bringing up. At the edge of the rim 
rock we stopped again and looked about us and below us. 
Never have I been more impressed with the wild grandeur 
of the mountains. The scene was startling — almost 
oppre.'sive. I remember the chief impression I gathered 
was that a man did not belong in there — that it was the 
country of the sheep and goats, and that they should have 
it all their own for at least a portion of the year. Not the 
first quality of invitation existed in this frozen-faced, im- 
passive calm, for now, for a brief moment, the storms had 
stopped and the glare of the sun lay over all the icy world. 
Searching: for the Game. 
O-to-ko-mi stopped all my surmisings by starting on 
down the mountain again, teUing me to come on, as it 
was useless trying to get over the peak at that point, since 
the ice was too bad on the slope of the mountain face. So 
Me slid down the ice the best we could till we got to snow 
again, and then began a long tramp in the edge of the 
woods to skirt around the peak. I had no idea where we 
were going or what we were trying to do, but. it seems 
that the Indian hunter was trying to get across into the 
upper valley of the little creek which ran back in the 
mountains. I asked no questions and bent all my energies 
to keeping in sight of him, for he was a demon in the 
mountains. Finally we came out at a high ridge where 
the view was not broken, and I saw that we had got 
around our ice mountain and could see a widish valley 
lying on ahead of us. At this O-to-ko-mi pointed calmly, 
saying, '"Plenty sh'ip." By this I imderstood him to 
really mean that maybe we might see a sheep after a 
while, not taking it as literally true that plenty of sheep 
were to be found so easily. 
Down a sharp and long bank we slid and plunged 
through the snow, and so reached the bottom of our 
valley. Then we began to climb again, the red hunter all 
the time searching sharply along the sides of the flat 
canon as they unrolled before our progress. On ahead I 
could see a great, dome-shaped, bare mountain top, appar- 
ently not more than a mile or so away. This, I learned 
later, was the summit of the Eockies for that portion of 
the range. My red man could not tell me that, nor did 
he pause to tell me anything, for now he began to act as a 
dog does which expects soon to be upon its game. Once 
or twice he showed places where we had expected to see 
sheep feeding, and also pointed out spots where he had 
killed sheep in earlier hunts. O-to-ko-mi, as I have said, 
is one of the few men of his tribe who hunt sheep now, 
and 1 presume there are none better in the tribe than he. 
Sighting the Came. 
We had gone up our little flat canon or valley for about 
half a mile or so above the timber, and were tramping 
along up steadily, though slowly, on the noiseless snow- 
shoes, when all at once O-to-ko-mi, who was leading, 
quietly dropped back and touched me on the shoulder. 
I looked up. The eyes of the Indian were set and glar- 
ing, yet he had himself in perfect control. I did not then 
know it, but it later transpired that Schultz had told him 
not to do any shooting, but to keep cool and give the white 
man the shot always. What hardship this must have 
been, no one but- a hunter can know. O-to-ko-mi's eyes 
glared as he looked on ahead and above, whispering as he 
touched me: 
"See! see! See um? see um?" 
Presently I "saw um." On a little jagged rock, about 
150yds. above us, and high up on the side of the cailon, 
was the front of a bighorn, which stood motionless, direct- 
ly facing us, and looking steadily down at us as we toiled 
on up the valley. Had I been alone I should never in the 
world have seen this sheep, for in color it blended per- 
fectly with its surroundings, and it was half concealed by 
wreaths of snow, which curled acd b'ew along the moun- 
tain side around it. Yet the infallible eye of this hunter 
had seen it, and now he stood poinung it out to me, never 
looking at me, but with his own eye fixed on the sheep. 
"Shoot! shoot!" he whispered, eagerly. "Shoot um, quick!" 
His English became more obvious under stress. 
Shooting the Game. 
The situation now was this. The Indian had his rifle 
ready to jerk from the canvas case slung over his shoulder. 
I had no canvas case, so kept my rifle covered in a cloth 
case, which was now sluug across my back on a knotted 
thong. I at once kneeled down and pulled the case ofi' 
over my head; but fearing that the sheep would move, and 
knowing that it would be a moment before I could get into 
action, I whispered to O-to-ko-mi to shoot. I saw the 
head was not a large one, and was willing to give the In- 
dian the chance as it was. But he very calmly, by this 
time having grown quiet and free from any excitement, 
replied: "Me no shoot." He was remembering Schultz's 
injunction, I suppose. 
It seemed a very long time before I could get the little 
rifle out of the case and get the wiping rag out of it, and get 
my glasses ofl'and get a rapid estimate of the distance for 
the shot, all of these things being necessary under the con- 
ditions of snowshoe hunting. Eeally, it may have been a 
very small part of a minute, but aU tlie time, whatever it 
was, the ram stood looking at us, never moving a muscle. 
In the shifting loom of the storm his head sometimes 
looked larger, and I thought the horns would sweep well 
back and half forward in their crescent. I knew the ani- 
mal was not a ewe, and concluded that I wanted it. As 
to being excited, I had not thought of that, and the Indian 
also was now absolutely quiet waiting for the shot. The 
target offered was not large, for the ram was directly facing 
me. I did not touch the sights of the .30-30, but fired 
quickly as soon as I caught hair on the rise. 
At once the sheep drew its head back and up, and gave 
a stiff jump around the rock, disappearing completely. I 
was very much annoyed at this, for though the shot was not 
an easy one, it was one which I should have made. It was 
comfort, however, to hear O-to-ko-mi say in a matter-of- 
fact tone of voice, "Mebbe hit um." I did not urge him to 
give reasons for this belief, and as he did not revile my 
marksmanship I let it go at that. At once he led on out 
up the valley a little further, around the point of rock 
where our sheen had disappeared. Then he stopped again, 
and in the same perfectly calm and emotionless voice said, 
as he slowly dropped back and pointed up the canon wall, 
"See um?" 
I looked and looked up the face of the mountain, 
trying to "see um," but for the life of me could not. 
All the side of the mountain seemed to me gray or 
brown or white, covered with the shift of the flying snow. 
But the other was patient, and at length got me to see, far 
away up the .side of the mountain, over 250yd8. distant, 
not one, but four sheep standing huddled together, and 
looking down at us, motionless as had been the first one. 
"Mebbe hit um," said 0-to-k6-mi; and then he with difli- 
culty made me understand that the dark-coloied sheep, 
the one almoFt hid in the middle of the bunch, the one 
with its head down, and with thB dark stripes up its legs, 
was the one I had shot. "Him buck," said O-to-ko mi. 
"Mebbe you hit um." 
A Dilemma. 
But alas! though this might be a "buck," it was clear 
that the others were not. Not a horn could I discover in 
the other three, though it was so far to where they were 
and the storm was driving so much snow ahead that I 
could not make out much with certainty. The four sheep, 
lapping each other like the fingers of one's two hands laid 
together, stood looking down from tiieir far-off perch, not 
making a move to split apart and give us a better look. I 
recall at this moment the peculiarly silent, the tragically 
motionless character of this drama of the winter moun- 
tains. It was so still that one felt uncomfortable. For 
one minute, two, three, really I think without exaggera- 
tion more than five minutes, the sheep stood looking at us. 
and we stood looking at them. I would not shoot at the 
bunch, for I was almost sure I would kill a ewe if I did. 
I asked Ot-o-ko-mi if he wanted to shoot, but in the same 
absolutely indiflerent tone he replied, "Me no shoot." 
Alter a time he again said, "You hit um," Then it oc- 
curred to me what was the real explanation of this action of 
the sheep. The "buck" was really hit when I fired, and it 
was standing still because it was hurt, the others not run- 
ning away because it did not. 
What to do then 1 did not know. It was folly to try to 
split the sheep apart, for a jump or two might take them 
where we could not go, and so perhaps the cripple would 
escape after all. We could not get any closer, and from 
where we were the shot at the crippled ram was a very 
hard one, the light bad and the distance at least 250yds. 
In my dilemma I once more asked O-to-ko-mi to shoot, 
knowing he had no scruples about killing a ewe. I offered 
him my rifle or his own, but he was dead game and de- 
clined like a gentleman. "Buck," he said, however, point- 
ing up. "You hit um." 
At last, with some desperation in feeling, I concluded I 
would risk another shot at the crippled ram. So I took 
off my snowshoes and sat down on them, carefully clean- 
ing up the rifle sights and taking a steady rest with my 
elbows against my two knees — a very good way to get a 
rifle rest. I did not raise the sights to 200yds., for I had 
never tried the rifle out thoroughly with any elevation to 
the sights, though I knew about what it would do with 
the sights as they were set — for 100yds. I held full and 
strong midway up the body of the dark-colored sheep, 
which I knew was my ram, and at the crack of the rifle the 
band of sheep fell apart as though a shell had burst among 
them. It was like the breaking of a spell, and now, in- 
stead of silence, all was action. To my horror I saw my 
"buck" start ofl to the right, evidently hit, but not the 
only one hit; for in the opposite direction, with its head 
held high in pain, stumbled a second sheep, without any 
horns, its hind leg hanging flapping. A big gulp came in 
my throat then, for it appeared that after all my care I 
had shot a ewe, and that in the springtime — an offense 
heinous, no matter what the law of the land where the 
shooting was done. With one look I saw this, and the 
next instant I ran the rifle sight on after the stumbling 
ram, and at the second shot he fell all in a bunch, tiie 
sound of the bullet proclaiming him hit full. Then, as the 
two unhurt sheep ran and again paused at the sight of 
their fallen companions, I turned the rifle on the remain- 
ing cripple, knowing that the sheep could not live and that 
it waa mercy to finish it, ewe or ram. I was angry and 
chagrined at this ill fortune, which at the time I laid to 
my bad shooting. I was careless then of aim, and do not 
know how I held, but I had gotten the range so perfectly 
at the first shot that it seemed I could no longer miss the 
sheep if I tried. At the next shot down it went, but strug- 
gled up again. This time it was a foreleg which went off. 
Again the spiteful nitro crack, as the sheep rolled and 
tumbled down hill toward us, and yet again I got a leg — 
the remaining hindleg. O-to-ko-mi, caring nothing for 
the suffering of the poor sheep, laughed at its antics, call- 
ing gleefully his word of: "You hit um! You hit um!" 
But though the sheep was now hit three times, it was not 
dead. It rolled down and lodged against a bush, and fol- 
lowing it quickly I struck it again, this time midway in 
