A Lillooet Sheep Hunt. 
Continued from page 975. 
About two miles from the pass was an old 
camping ground which had evidently been used 
by Indians and others for many years. There 
we stopped, built a fire and waited for the pack 
train. It came up in about half an hour and 
we had our regular cold lunch of chocolate and 
corn bread. 
After lunch we rode down the trail that we 
had come up a week before, heading for the 
lake where we had camped going out. There 
we expected to stop and hunt deer for a few 
days. The trail dropped sharply for a few miles, 
and as we descended, the snow grew thinner and 
the weather less cold, until when we reached the 
lake toward evening there was only an inch of 
snow and the weather was very comfortable. At 
the foot of the lake were two great fir trees 
where we had intended to camp, and it was irri¬ 
tating to find that the spot had been pre-empted 
by three Indians who had pitched their tent there 
and were hunting deer for their winter’s supply 
of meat. They had already killed two or three 
deer and were drying the meat on racks over a 
fire. It was too late to seek any other camping 
ground in a different country, so we went half 
a mile further down the meadow and camped 
near where we had camped coming up. Grant 
seemed to think it would be worth while to hunt 
for a few days in spite of the Indians, and we 
therefore unpacked and made a comfortable 
camp. At Noaxe Lake Grant had slept in a 
lean-to, evidently going on the principle that as 
they were so uncomfortable anyway, it was no 
use trying to better matters, but here he set up, 
not only tire lean-to as a dining room, but also 
a very good ten by ten tent with a stove, for use 
as a sleeping tent. We also rigged up a table 
inside the lean-to and benches to sit upon, so 
that we were in style for the first time during 
the trip. 
The next morning was clear and fine, and Pat 
and I chose the mountains on the north side 
of the lake, while Cutler and Grant went to the 
south. It was rather disappointing to feel that 
the chances for sheep were over, but there is no 
use spoiling a hunting trip by being dissatisfied 
with your luck, so we started up through the 
timber resigned to the pursuit of deer. For 
about an hour we climbed steadily upward, and 
then it began to snow, and for a while the 
weather was very dark and thick. It seemed as 
though the winter was following us down from 
the mountains. I told Pat I had no hope of 
getting anything that day and he assented. We 
sat down to rest on a log in the snow, and 
after several minutes’ thought, Pat made an¬ 
other long speech. Feeling of his ear, he said, 
“Ear all swole; toe all swole. Too cool up the 
Shallop. Not so cool in September.” My 
memories of Shallops were certainly cool 
enough, and I could hardly keep from laughing. 
We started up again, and after two miles more 
of climbing, the sun came out, and it stopped 
snowing. We arrived on a long gradual slop¬ 
ing plateau, which gave us a view ahead up the 
mountains for several miles. We were about 
on the upper edge of the timber, and Pat took 
the glasses and had a long look over the moun¬ 
tains ahead of us. At last he said, “I see a 
sheep ’way off there.” As it was impossible to 
determine its sex, we worked a mile nearer, and 
then Pat, getting a rest on a tree with a glass, 
said it was a ram. As usual, the wind was blow¬ 
ing from us toward the ram, which was feeding 
on the edge of a ridge north of us, and to the 
east ran a long ridge of peaks. By going 
around these peaks and down the back of them, 
we could make a circle and come up the hill 
behind the ram. This we immediately started 
to do, first slipping from tree to tree, so that 
the ram could not see us until we put the hill be¬ 
tween him and us. We then started around the 
peaks, going higher as we went and occasion¬ 
ally climbing to the top of a peak to see that 
the ram had not moved. For two hours we 
worked steadily around the peaks until we came 
to where we expected to descend into a valley 
behind the ram, and then circle up behind the 
ridge he was on. At that point we met with a 
great disappointment, for the back of the moun¬ 
tains was a sheer precipice for its entire length, 
and there was no possibility of getting down. 
Its edge was lined with frozen banks of snow, 
and I was so reminded of the slide on Shallops 
that I did not care to take any chances with 
it by even going near the edge. 
Our only chance to get at the ram was to 
cross the peak and go down the side of the 
mountain toward him. For a while there was a 
little rise in the ground that protected us, but 
after going about half a mile, we passed this 
and then sat down on the rocks and looked 
ahead of us. It had come on to snow again 
while we were crawling down the mountain, and 
through the sheet of heavy snow I could see 
the ram six or seven hundred yards away, stand¬ 
ing on the opposite hillside. He would paw up 
the snow with his foot and feed on the grass, 
and then take a long look all around the coun¬ 
try to see that he was in no danger. At times 
he looked directly at us, but as we sat perfectly 
quiet, with the snow settling heavily on us, it 
was impossible for him to tell that we were not 
simply two large rocks. We knew that if we 
moved he would run, and to shoot at that dis¬ 
tance in that light was practically hopeless. So 
we had to sit, as time passed, hoping that some 
chance would turn up in our favor. After about 
a quarter of an hour, when we were getting 
thoroughly chilled with the exposure, it began 
to get very thick, so that we had almost decided 
to try to move on again when the ram, after 
another long look around the country, turned 
and walked down into the gully below us, where 
he was entirely hidden from sight. This was 
our chance, and we immediately started down 
the hillside as fast as we could go, without mak¬ 
ing too much noise. As we arrived near the 
top of the gully, Pat dropped back, and I 
started to go ahead. At this point, however, 
past experience stood me in good stead, and I 
sat down on the rocks and carefully examined 
the sights of my rifle. It was most fortunate 
that I did so, as I found the peep hole on my 
rear sight was frozen solid with snow. Pat im¬ 
mediately produced a pin, and I cleaned it out 
thoroughly, wiped the ice from the bead, threw 
off the safety and walked to the edge of the gully. 
The ram was walking up the bottom of the 
gully about a hundred and twenty-five yards 
away from me, and I could see his broad, curl¬ 
ing horns and knew that he was a well grown 
specimen. Even at that range, the snow was 
falling so thick that it was hard to shoot, but 
getting the best bead I could, I fired both 
barrels at his foreshoulder. I could see him 
flinch and stumble at both shots, but he im¬ 
mediately started off as if unhurt, running very 
rapidly up the side of the gully we were on. 
As he ran I fired eight shots at him in quick 
succession. When about four hundred yards 
away he stopped, evidently feeling very sick. 
I had four cartridges left in my belt, and as I 
was very anxious not to make the mistake that 
I had previously made with the doe, I sat down 
to see what the ram would do. He lay down 
for a while and finally got up and stood broad¬ 
side on. The weather by this time had cleared 
somewhat and he was brightly outlined against 
the snow. I decided that even at that range. I 
could probably hit him, so I took a very care¬ 
ful rest and fired one of my remaining car¬ 
tridges. The ram pitched on his head and 
rolled all the way to the bottom of the gully, 
but his endurance was marvelous, for he got up 
again and ran down the gully and lay down be¬ 
hind a fir bush. This sheltered us somewhat, so 
I started down the side of the gully to run him 
down. 
From the top of the mountain the gully had 
appeared to be merely a little hollow, but, it 
was really about fifty yards deep, with the sides 
so steep that I could not walk on them. So I 
sat down, held up my gun and coasted to the 
bottom, jumped to my feet, ran up the other 
side of the gully, circled round the top and 
came out directly above the ram. He was then 
only twenty yards from me, and as he again 
jumped to his feet, I fired both barrels point 
blank into his back, killing him instantly. Pat 
came up in a moment and was greatly rejoiced. 
The ram had a fine head, though somewhat 
smaller than my first ram, measuring fourteen 
inches round the base but only twenty-eight 
inches on the curve, whereas my first ram had 
been thirty-three. There were six bullets in 
him. His left foreshoulder was entirely shot 
away, one ear was split and a bullet had cut a 
crease along the top of one of his horns. 
It was still snowing hard, but I took several 
pictures of the dead ram. Pat looked at his 
watch. It was 2:30, and the stalk and kill had 
taken full three hours, and there was not a 
minute of it that was not hard and exciting 
work. We sat down and had some lunch and 
then skinned the ram and took the head. The 
meat we left, as it was so strong that it was 
useless as food. 
