He
Was Pointing Toward A Detached Rocky Hill That Stood In The Middle Of
The Valley Before Us, And From Behind It A Long File Of Elk Came Out
At Full Speed And Entered An Opening In The Side Of The Mountain.
They had scarcely disappeared when whoops and exclamations came from
fifty voices around me.
The young men leaped from their horses,
flung down their heavy buffalo robes, and ran at full speed toward
the foot of the nearest mountain. Reynal also broke away at a gallop
in the same direction, "Come on! come on!" he called to us. "Do you
see that band of bighorn up yonder? If there's one of them, there's
a hundred!"
In fact, near the summit of the mountain, I could see a large number
of small white objects, moving rapidly upward among the precipices,
while others were filing along its rocky profile. Anxious to see the
sport, I galloped forward, and entering a passage in the side of the
mountain, ascended the loose rocks as far as my horse could carry me.
Here I fastened her to an old pine tree that stood alone, scorching
in the sun. At that moment Raymond called to me from the right that
another band of sheep was close at hand in that direction. I ran up
to the top of the opening, which gave me a full view into the rocky
gorge beyond; and here I plainly saw some fifty or sixty sheep,
almost within rifle-shot, clattering upward among the rocks, and
endeavoring, after their usual custom, to reach the highest point.
The naked Indians bounded up lightly in pursuit. In a moment the
game and hunters disappeared. Nothing could be seen or heard but the
occasional report of a gun, more and more distant, reverberating
among the rocks.
I turned to descend, and as I did so I could see the valley below
alive with Indians passing rapidly through it, on horseback and on
foot. A little farther on, all were stopping as they came up; the
camp was preparing, and the lodges rising. I descended to this spot,
and soon after Reynal and Raymond returned. They bore between them a
sheep which they had pelted to death with stones from the edge of a
ravine, along the bottom of which it was attempting to escape. One
by one the hunters came dropping in; yet such is the activity of the
Rocky Mountain sheep that, although sixty or seventy men were out in
pursuit, not more than half a dozen animals were killed. Of these
only one was a full-grown male. He had a pair of horns twisted like
a ram's, the dimensions of which were almost beyond belief. I have
seen among the Indians ladles with long handles, capable of
containing more than a quart, cut from such horns.
There is something peculiarly interesting in the character and habits
of the mountain sheep, whose chosen retreats are above the region of
vegetation and storms, and who leap among the giddy precipices of
their aerial home as actively as the antelope skims over the prairies
below.
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