Boregas and Tanakas 
II.-A Mountain Sheep Hunt in Lower California 
—Unexpected Success 
By DOUBLE BARREL 
I F this were a romance, I would feel very 
much inclined to omit the account of this 
day’s hunting, as there was nothing in it to 
my credit. We cut around the shoulder of 
Valdez Mountain without going out of the desert 
until after about six miles traveling, when we 
struck into the mountains at the rear of Valdez 
through a large arroyo. We went down this 
for an hour, and then took lunch at a beautifm 
little tank, which we found in the bottom of the 
arroyo. Afterward we continued down the 
arroyo for two or three miles, striking several 
tanks, some of them of considerable size. The 
walking was very bad, as the arroyo was filled 
with huge boulders over which we had to scram¬ 
ble as best we could. All these tanks were so 
situated that it would have been impossible to 
get a horse within miles of them, so that they 
were no use for camping purposes. 
About half-past two in the afternoon we de¬ 
cided to climb up to the tableland on one side. 
We started, and as it was a long climb, we 
stopped about half way up and sat down on a 
rock. Eleno took out the glasses and began to 
examine the scenery. He was using a very 
powerful pair of glasses I had brought with me, 
the most powerful prism binoculars made, and 
after a short time he suddenly ejaculated, 
“Boregos.” I could not see anything, but he 
indicated where they were in the arroyo, and 
when I took the glasses I could see half a dozen 
sheep, including one ram, watching us from the 
other side of the arroyo near the bottom and 
about 400 yards away. It was a wonderful ex¬ 
ample of the protective coloring of the sheep 
that we had not seen them without the glasses, 
for even after we knew sheep were there, we 
could hardly distinguish them with the naked 
eye. The whole bunch was watching us, and it 
seemed like a perfectly hopeless position. 
If I could have explained my idea to Eleno I 
would have given up the sheep and gone off the 
way we came, and then tried to get back to 
them later. That would have probably meant 
spending the night away from camp, and this 
I was perfectly willing to do, as the nights were 
very warm. Unfortunately, there was no way 
of explaining this to Eleno, and after we had 
sat still for fifteen minutes he tapped my rifle 
and indicated that he wanted me to shoot. The 
ram head was not one that I particularly cared 
for, but under the circumstances I thought that 
I was justified in taking a shot at him, and I 
was further strengthened by the feeling that if 
- . 
A CHOLLA. 
the ram got away it would not be an irreparable 
loss. I therefore put up the sights on my rifle 
and fired at the ram, striking just under him. 
He at once started running up the further side 
of the arroyo away from us. My second shot 
struck just over him, and then as fast as I could 
reload 'my doub’e barrel, I fired a number of 
times more as he went up the side. The shots 
seemed to strike very close to him, but finally I 
saw him vanish over the top, entirely unhurt. 
I was very much chagrined at being unable to 
stop him, even at that range, with such a fair 
chance to get one shot home, but the worst was 
yet to come, for before we could move from the 
rock, a truly enormous ram that we had not 
seen’ before came to the top of the other side 
of the arroyo and stood looking down at us. 
He was fully half a mile away and there was 
no use shooting at him at that range. After 
a few minutes’ inspection he walked away from 
the skyline and we at once started down the 
arroyo and went up the other side to where he 
had been, but when we reached the top there 
were no sheep in sight in any direction. E\i- 
dently the big ram had been off by himse.f 
somewhere, and when he heard the shooting he 
had come and looked over to see what had be¬ 
come of the rest of the sheep, and soon after¬ 
ward finding them gone he had made off him¬ 
self. The only consoling thought in the whole 
proposition was that the sheep seemed to have 
been driven down the range toward where we 
would next camp. 
There was nothing to do but to hurry home, 
and it was long after 5 o’ciock and darkness had 
settled down by the time we reached camp. J. 
G. M. and Captain Funcke were already in after 
a very short day. They had waited to see the 
other outfit off and had then gone out for a 
couple of hours without seeing anything. Louis 
Jackson, too, was gone with the other party. It 
was certainly hard on Louis, for he had no 
sooner got into the country and had a day s rest 
than he had to turn round and go out. The 
captain had changed him for Mr. Dunne, be¬ 
cause the latter, although not so good a cook, 
was an experienced packer, knew the country, 
and was also more willing to take the hardships 
of the trip without feeling abused. We were 
sorry to lose Louis, but Mr. Dunne proved to 
be equally genial. He had been born forty-fi\e 
years before in Elkhart, Ind., had graduated 
from an agricultural school in Kansas, and had 
done everything in the line of mining, farming 
and cooking for the last twenty-five years. 
There did not seem to be any use in hunting 
sheep at Valdez Mountain, so we packed up and 
crossed the desert about fifteen miles to another 
tank, which lay in a valley in the mountains. 
This was the Tanaka Colorado, or Red Tanaka, 
so-called from the setting of red rocks in which 
it lay. It was in a much more desolate part of 
the mountains than Valdez 1 anaka, and the wild¬ 
ness of the surrounding country seemed to be 
better adapted for successful sheep hunting. 
We got to bed early that night and were up 
at the first streak of dawn, had breakfast and 
were off before 7 o'clock. Eleno and I climbed 
to a high peak a coup’e of miles from camp, 
and there had a long inspection of the country 
through the glasses, and not seeing any sheep, 
we crossed an arroyo to another peak, and there 
Eleno finally located one large ram lying down 
a long distance away. He tried to point to me 
