
JuLy 13, 1907.] 

A Sheep’s Great Leap. 
WE went out from Cebolla with J. J. Carpen- 
ter and three of his boys, leaving there May 21, 
and making camp on Sapinero Creek, about seven 
miles from its mouth. We were out nine days 
and it rained or snowed every day but one after 
we got into camp. This really helped the bear 
hunting, making it easier to follow trails, but 
quite disagreeable otherwise. 
We had three chases and got two bears, one 
black and one brown. They were not cubs, nor 
monsters of the forest weighing half a ton each, 
as most bears do when weighed in the moun- 
tains, but just ordinary bears of 200 to 300 
pounds each; nor were there any marvelous 
shots or hair-raising experiences. 
The country is exceedingly rough, with cliffs 
so vertical in many places as to be impossible 
of ascent by any animal. In some places a bear 
can get up, while the dogs cannot; in others 
the dogs can follow, but the horses cannot. We 
had twelve dogs—nine foxhounds and three fox- 
terriers—all good bear dogs; the horses were 
also sure-footed and speedy when speed was re- 
quired, and Mr. Carpenter and his boys under- 
stood bear hunting and knew the country well. 
There are a good many bears in that country, 
but its rough and cliffy character makes the ride 
hard and the chase generally long. We chased 
a silver tip several miles, but did not get to see 
him, as he ran over a black bear and the dogs 
switched after the latter. 
The killing of the black bear is to Mr. Smith’s 
credit, as it was agreed that he should have the 
first shot, but as that did not stop him, and 
there were at least eight or ten other shots fired, 
it was impossible to say which shot hit him the 
hardest. The bear was running, and in such a 
case every one who gets sight of him is at liberty 
to shoot, but under the rules of the chase the 
first shot has the first claim. The bear imme- 
diately got high up in the cliffs and into a sort 
of a pocket and came to bay, where Mr. Car- 
penter and his sons finished him. 
The brown bear treed after a two hours’ chase. 
I happened to reach the tree first, and as soon 
as the bear saw me he climbed down and ran, 
but I made a fortunate shot with a .45-90, and 
the bullet went through him end ways, entering 
his thigh, passed through his heart and lodged 
in his shoulder. He ran only about twenty feet 
and was dead by the time the dogs got to him. 
One of the best dogs was badly bitten by the 
black bear, and a bullet which went through the 
bear hit a rock, split, and one piece lodged in 
the same dog’s leg and crippled him so that he 
was out of the hunt after that. 
Soon after we started the black bear he ran 
along the foot of a cliff and past a bunch of 
mountain sheep. Some of the dogs left the bear 
and chased the sheep up on the cliffs, following 
one of them to the edge. It was a big ram, and 
| when he got near the edge of the cliff he came 
to bay, and for several minutes stood off one 
of the fox terriers which had kept close to him. 
Pretty soon a foxhound got up on top and joined 
the terrier, and they both made.a charge on the 
sheep, and it looked pretty bad for him, as we 
thought, but he did not seem to think so, for 
he miade a sidewise spring straight out from the 
edge of the precipice, apparently six or eight 
feet, and then spread his feet in a sort of brac- 
ing way, and with his body in a perfectly hori- 
zontal position, and parallel to the face of the 
cliff dropped straight down to the foot of the 
cliff. 
There is an old theory that 
in jumping from a cliff alight on 
but that has long been exploded. 
many have supposed that they jumped down in 
the ordinary way, alighting first on their front 
feet. This, I believe, is also an error, except 
when the distance is slight. Where the dis- 
tance is at all great I now entertain no doubt 
that they light on all their feet at once, and as 
squarely as if -standing still, just as this one 
did. The position of this sheep when dropping 
was stiff legged, but the instant his feet touched 
the ground his joints gave way, with increas- 
ing resistance, however, acting as springs, until 
his belly almost touched the ground, before the 
force of the impact was overcome by the mus- 
mountain sheep 
their horns, 
However; 


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JUDGE BEAMAN’S SHEEP LEAPING DOWN THE CLIFF. 
Sketched from a photograph. 
cular resistance. The philosophy of this is ob- 
vious. 
The hoofs of the mountain sheep are also 
heavily cushioned and are about as elastic as a 
rubber ball. There seemed to be no more jar 
when this sheep lit than if he had descended but 
two or three feet. He was up and away in- 
stantly, and was soon out of reach of the dogs, 
which wouldn’t think of making the jump. 
A short distance to the left of where the 
sheep stood the cliff sloped off so that he could 
have descended to the foot of it easily and with- 
out a leap of more than four or five feet, but 
the dogs could have followed and thus kept hot 
after him. This way down ‘was in plain sight 
of the sheep, and he was, no doubt, perfectly 
familiar with it and with all the features of 
the cliff, as it was his home. It seemed as if 
the sheep decided that the only or best way to 
baffle the dogs was to’ do something that they 
could not do. I would not dare’ to assert that 
such was the case, lest I should run up against 
some of the naturalists who claim that wild 
animals do not reason. 
The dogs were afraid to approach even as 
near the edge of the cliff as where the sheep 
stood when he jumped, and when he had passed 
out of their sight over the edge they seemed to 
think he had taken wing, as they immediately 
quit the chase and came back to us. 
Mr. Smith and myself were on the opposite 
side of the gulch, about 300 yards away and saw 
the whole performance, which lasted several 
minutes. It was the finest exhibition of animal 
agility I ever saw or expect to see. How far 
a sheep can jump, or rather drop, and not hurt 
himself I do not know, but this was pretty good. 
IT went up to the spot afterward and took 4 
kodak picture of the cliff and measured its 
height as accurately as possible, and found it 
to be between twenty and twenty-five feet. 
From the-ease with which he made it I should 
think he could almost double the distance with- 
out injury. 
After the hunt was over we put in the first 
day: of June fishing in the Gunnison at Cebolla. 
The cool weather had lowered and cleared the 
river, so that bait fishing was good, and a few 
fish were taken with a fly. D. C. BEAMAN. 
Outwitting an Old Gobbler. 
DonipHaAN, Mo., July 6—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I must reluctantly confess that my first 
wild turkey was not killed with an old-fashioned 
cap-and-ball rifle, nor did I have buck- fever at 
my first sight of the birds. On the contrary, I 
spent quite a time in their midst before one 
succumbed to my aim. On more than one oc- 
casion when everything seemed favorable to 
bring a gobbler to bag, something turned up to 
foil my attempts. Not that I had not seen one 
nor that opportunities were wanting, but fate 
seemed to store up a few woes for me each time 
in the shape of disappointment. 
On one occasion | felt that at last I would kill 
one, for they seemed within my grasp. We 
were fly-fishing late one fall down Current 
River for small-mouth bass, and as ducks were 
plentiful, a gun was carried in the front of the 
johnboat, to be in readiness for a shot, when 
we jumped a flock of mallards feeding in the 
cress beds, or bonnet leaves. I had been induced 
to substitute for my flies one of those barbarous 
devices, a phantom minnow. It is certainly an 
effective lure, for no fish ever comes within 
striking distance of it that will not be caught 
with one of its numerous hooks. And when 
you land your fish, it takes usually fifteen 
minutes to withdraw the assortment of barbs 
that have penetrated in the different parts of 
his body—for when you withdraw one from 
his mouth, there are several more looped into 
his body to contend with. 
I was standing in the bow of the boat whip- 
ping every likely place, when as I _ looked 
ahead for the next likely place to cast, I beheld 
at the end of the bar ahead of us twelve wild 
turkeys. It was evident that they were not 
aware of our near presence, so I quickly reeled 
in my line and reached for the gun. Fate again 
was against me. Somehow or other I never 
could account how in.my haste to reach the 
gun, my face came in contact with that in- 
famous phantom minnow. As I rose, or ‘rather 
attempted to rise to look again for the turkeys, 
the barbs hung to my upper lip, and there I 
was a prisoner. 
The boatman not knowing the cause of my 

