und,
not fifty yards from where we had last seen him. It was a long and hard
climb to reach him, but he carried a very pretty head with massive horns
of over a full turn. I found that two shots of the seven which I had
fired had taken effect.

Two days later the native arrived from the main camp with more
provisions, and brought an interesting letter from Blake. It seemed that
some Englishmen who had been hunting in these hills just before us had
driven the big rams to the other end of the range, where my friend had
been most fortunate in finding them. He strongly advised my leaving my
present camp and coming to the country which he had just left, having
got six excellent heads. This was the limit which we had decided upon as
the number of sheep that we each wanted.

It was now apparently clear that I had been hunting at a great
disadvantage in my district. On receiving Blake's letter I at once
determined to retrace my steps to the main camp, go to the head of the
lake and follow up the trail which he had laid out upon the mountains.

Therefore the next morning (September 7) we shouldered our packs and
went over the hills to our main camp. Instead of following the trail by
which we had come, we decided to push straight across country, hoping in
this way to reach our main camp in one march. Our change of route was
unfortunate, and this day I can easily put down as the hardest one I
ever passed in the mountains.

In order to bring out all our belongings in one trip we had extra heavy
packs, and the country over which we marched was very trying. About noon
I spied sheep on one of the outlying hills, and as we came nearer I made
out through the glasses that this was a bunch of five rams, and that
three of them carried exceptionally good heads. My only chance was to
push ahead of my men, and this I did, but stalking sheep over a rough
country with a heavy pack on your back is very trying work, and I failed
to connect with these rams.

About five o'clock in the afternoon we came down over the mountains on
to the high plateau above our main camp. We were all too used up to go
any further, or even put up our light tent, although it soon began to
rain. We made a rude camp in a patch of stunted hemlocks, and as I sat
before the fire having my tea, I chanced to look up on the hills before
me, and there was the bunch of five rams I had tried so hard to stalk
early in the afternoon. They were at no great distance, but it was
r