A Lillooet Sheep Hunt. 
Continued from page 1014. 
The next morning we all started out again to 
look for deer. Grant and Cutler returned to 
the place where they had hunted the day be¬ 
fore. Grant felt sure there were deer there, al¬ 
though on the day before they had not suc¬ 
ceeded in seeing any. I told Pat again and 
again that I did not see how anybody ever killed 
deer in the timber in that country, as there 
seemed to be such an expanse of country to 
each animal. But he would merely reply, “I 
think we catch ’em,” and that morning he con¬ 
tinued to adhere to this view. We went down 
the valley, beyond another little lake, then 
turned up into the hills. Here we found an 
open hillside covered with huge Norway pines 
and with a number of fresh deer tracks going 
up and down it. We finally came upon the track 
of a' big buck which was going along the hill¬ 
side, and we followed it for about two miles, 
when I began to doubt whether we would ever 
catch a glimpse of him. Pat was still hopeful, 
so we kept on until, in turning a point of the 
hill. I saw the buck bounding along the face 
of the opposite hillside. He was so far away 
that it seemed hopeless to shoot at him on the 
run, so I turned to Pat and asked him if he 
could stop him. Pat whistled shrilly twice, but 
the buck paid no attention and kept on. He 
was nearing the edge of the hill, and I felt if I 
did not shoot he would be gone anyway, so I 
sat down, and resting my elbows on my knees, 
fired both barrels at him. It seemed to me that 
I could see the buck flinch, and when I asked 
Pat if I had hit him he replied that he thought 
so. The distance seemed well over three hun¬ 
dred yards, and I knew that if I 113(1 hit him it 
was a most remarkable piece of luck. There 
was no way of pacing the distance, as there was 
a deep valley between us, but we started across 
as hard as we could go. 
At the point where the buck had been when 
I fired, we found no trace of blood, but fol¬ 
lowed him about fifty yards over the hill, still 
without any sign of blood. When we came to 
the edge of the hill I could see where he had 
gone sliding down the face of it, but I still had 
small hopes of seeing the buck, when I looked 
down the hillside and saw Ji m about fifty feet 
away doubled up against a tree, stone dead. 
We found a minute puncture where the 6^2- 
millimeter bullet had gone in just behind the 
shoulder. It had not come out, and though I 
made a careful examination of the ground, I 
was not able to find that he had bled a drop at 
any point. He was a fine big blacktail, and I 
was much pleased with my success and particu¬ 
larly with the shot which was a thing to be re¬ 
membered. I have tried very earnestly to learn 
■to judge distance with some accuracy, and I feel 
sure that this buck was shot at over three hun¬ 
dred yards, while Pat was certain that it was 
fully four hundred. It was remarkable in that 
he was caught in exactly the right spot while 
on. the run, and I do not think that this shot 
could have been made with any rifle with a 
lower velocity than the 6j4-millimeter, as I had 
no t ine to raise my sights at all. 
We skinned out the buck's head and cleaned 
and bled the body, leaving it for Shemoo to 
come after with one of the horses. -As we had 
killed this deer about eleven in the morning, we 
were back at camp by two, and I had three hours 
to lie around the camp before Cutler and Grant 
came in. They had not seen a deer that day and 
Cutler began to feel that it was a hopeless job 
to find any. However, my buck’s head proved 
that it was possible to get deer in that district 
and he cheered up and determined to try again 
the next day. 
That night it snowed heavily ag^in so that 
we had at least six inches of snow in camp. 
The next day, however, was moderately decent 
and Pat and I made a long circle through the 
country. It was the wrong place for deer, how¬ 
ever, for though we tramped all day, we crossed 
only one fresh track, and that was the track of 
a doe. We returned to camp about 4 o’clock to 
see Grant and Cutler coming down the mountain 
side dragging something after them. In a few 
minutes they turned up in camp, carrying the 
carcass of a yearling buck. 
They had come on a bunch of eight deer, in¬ 
cluding two good sized bucks. Cutler had been 
unable to locate the biggest buck in the t'mber, 
but had fired at a smaller one, breaking its fore 
leg. He then gave the gun to Grant, who shot 
the yearling. They then took up the trail and 
followed the wounded buck for two or three 
miles, but finally turned back. Cutler was dis¬ 
appointed with the result of this day’s shoot ng, 
as he found that with his spectacles he was un¬ 
able to see clearly in the timber, and he was 
about ready to give up deer shooting and try for 
goats. Still he thought he would go back and 
try to trail the wounded buck the next day, and 
I was glad to give another day to deer shoot¬ 
ing, though I had no particular desire for an¬ 
other head for myself. 
We had secured more venison than we needed 
and that night we had Squellum cut from the 
yearling deer. It was perfectly delicious and 
from that time on we abandoned the meat of my 
first ram entirely and lived on the best quality 
venison. 
The next morning, soon after we started out, 
it began to snow and continued to snow all day. 
About 11 o'clock Pat and I struck the fresh 
trail of a bunch of deer and followed it for 
several hours through the heavy snow, but finally 
were forced to give it up and return to camp. 
Cutler came in with Grant at about the same 
time, reporting that they had followed the 
wounded deer as long as there was any sense 
in it. and that he seemed to be getting spryer 
every minute. By the next morning there was 
a good foot of snow on the ground and the 
walking had become so heavy that we decided 
to quit deer shooting and return to White’s 
cabin to try for goats. So we struck camp, 
packed up and reached Grant’s ranch about 3 
o'clock in the afternoon and found Liza en¬ 
tirely recovered from her illness and very glad 
to see us. 
Grant felt sure we would be able to get goats 
on the high steep mountain across the river from 
his ranch. We could plainly see the line of 
snow which grew lighter until it stopped about 
500 feet from the base. Grant’s ranch was 1,500 
feet below our last camp, and we had once more 
got down below the line of snow that seemed 
to have followed us from Noaxe Lake. 
That night we had a fine supper which included 
as a change in diet turnips, cabbage and carrots 
from Grant’s garden, and we slept in a first class 
bed in his loft. The next morning all four of 
us- started across the flat to Bridge River, and 
on the bank found a heavy rowboat belonging 
to Grant. This we put in the water and rowed 
across the river to the base of the mountain 
opposite. There we parted company, Pat and I 
going up one part of the mountain and White 
and Cutler up another. This was the steepest 
climbing we had yet encountered, and often we 
had to pull ourselves up by the bushes. It would 
have been as bad earlier in the season, but at 
this time the ground was frozen perfectly solid 
so that it gave no chance to get a good foothold. 
Fortunately Grant had put new soles and hob 
nails on my shoes the night before, so that I 
was able to get along fairly well. Pat and I 
climbed straight up the mountain all morning 
and finally got on top of that portion which we 
had ascended, which was the lowest in the neigh¬ 
borhood. There we had our one adventure of 
the day. 
At the edge of a precipice we had stopped to 
look over the country with the glass and I hung 
my wet woollen mittens on a limb for a few 
minutes. When we went on I forgot about the 
mittens, and when I missed them I hurried back 
without asking Pat to wait for me. I got them 
and was returning when I saw Pat stop dead 
in his tracks. He had come right on a big buck 
deer not twenty yards away. The deer, after 
looking Pat over, did not care to wait for me, 
and all I saw was a glimpse of his tail as he 
passed over the hill. This experience showed 
the continual watchfulness necessary in big-game 
shooting. That was the first time during the 
trip that I had not been on hand and it cost me 
another buck’s head. We followed the buck for 
a little while, but it was no use trying to find 
him, and as there seemed to be no signs of 
goats, we finally scrambled back down the moun¬ 
tain side, sliding fully as much as we walked, 
and in many places we had to hold on with both 
hands to get down at all. 
It would be very difficult for anyone to go 
through British Columbia and carry a rifle with¬ 
out a sling strap by means of which he could in 
an emergency swing the gun over his shoulder. 
A rifle for such work should also have a good 
solid steel butt plate, as there are many times 
when it is absolutely necessary to steady oneself 
with the butt of the gun. As my rifle did not 
have a steel butt plate, I tried to spare it some¬ 
what, but was forced nevertheless to use it in 
that way many times. 
