A BIGHORN
While Hugh had been working and Jack fishing, Joe had been roaming
the hillsides. He had found some signs of game and killed another
little fawn, but had not been higher up than the first bench above
the camp. From there, however, he had seen higher mountains rising
beyond, and one night he said to Jack, "Jack, why don't you quit
catching these fish, and let's go up high on the hills here, and
see if we can't kill something?"
"That's a good idea, Joe," said Hugh, "the meat of these
black-tails is about gone now, and it's a good idea for you boys
to go out and kill something more. That last fawn that you got is
almost gone, too. We don't want to keep eating fish all the rest of
the trip.
"Good enough," said Jack. "I'll go you; and we'll start early
to-morrow morning. Shall we take horses, Hugh?"
"Why, no," said Hugh, "if I were you I'd leave the horses here to
rest, and go afoot. You can hunt better afoot, and then if you kill
anything that's too big for you to pack in, you can come down and
get a horse for it."
The next morning the two boys started early, and for a long time
scrambled up the hill. When they reached the top of the bench
above camp, they found before them a plateau, more or less level,
and beyond that rose another ridge, which cut off the view. They
climbed and climbed for a long time, passing over one bench after
another, and at length, a little before noon, Joe saw far off
on the hillside, at about the same level with themselves, three
mountain sheep. They were on quite another mountain, for there were
two wide gorges between them and the boys; and, what was more to
the point, the sheep had already seen them and were looking. So the
boys kept on climbing.
At last they reached the rocks, a great brown slope of broken
weathered lichen-covered stones, which rose steeply before them;
but the going was not bad, and they climbed up, heading always for
a place where the precipices above seemed broken away, so that they
could get through. It was now noon and the sun shone warm, but a
cool breeze was blowing along the hillside, and the air was fresh
and invigorating. Jack said, "Now, Joe, when we get to the top of
this cliff we'll find a sheltered place, and sit down there and
eat."
"That will be good," said Joe; "I'm hungry." They had now climbed
quite high, and looking across at the mountain on the other side of
the stream, could see that the timber was small, and that a little
higher up it seemed to stop. Joe said, "We ought to see sheep up
here, it seems to me."
"I should think so," said Jack, "but we'll have to wait until
we get to some place where we can get a good look along the
mountain." Before long they reached a ravine, and clambering up it
for some distance came out on a rocky hillside, from which both
to the north and south they could see a long way over ground that
for the most part was open and steeply sloping. Above them the
mountains rose in a series of narrow benches--a bench not more than
fifty feet wide, and then a cliff as high, then another bench,
and another cliff, and so on up. Here, choosing a place which was
sheltered from the wind, they sat down and rested for a while, at
the same time eating their bread and dried meat, which tasted very
good. When they had finished, Jack said:
"Now, Joe, you know more about the mountains than I do. What shall
we do? Shall we keep on climbing, and try to get up to the top, or
shall we walk along one of these benches? I suppose if we do that
we might easily enough run across some sheep, for at this time of
the day they'd be likely to be lying down in just such places."
"Yes," said Joe, "that's so; but if they're lying down there,
they're looking 'round all the time, and pretty sure to see you
before you see them. Then maybe they'll make one jump out of sight,
going up the hill, or down, and you don't get a shot."
"Well, then," said Jack, "let's go higher."
"All right," said Joe, "we'll go ahead."
The climb was steep and rough and hard, but they kept at it for
sometime longer, and at last found themselves up above the benches
and on a gentle rounded rock slope, where little grass grew. There
were no trees or tall weeds.
[Illustration: "ALMOST BELOW THEM, FEEDING, WERE TWO GOOD SIZED
RAMS."--_Page 183_]
"Now," said Joe, "I think we've got to the place. Now we can work
along and look down into these ravines, or little basins, or onto
the ledges, and maybe if we see sheep we'll be above them and can
get to them."
They followed the ridge down the stream, and in the first ravine
that they came to they saw a big drift of snow. They headed that,
and as they went on, found that in all the low places on the
mountain top there was more or less snow. They had gone more than
half a mile when, peering over a crest of rock, they looked down
into a pretty little basin in which there was a good deal of snow,
but above the snow grew green grass, and almost below them feeding
were two good sized rams. The animals did not see them, and they
drew back.
"Now, Joe," said Jack, "which of us shall shoot? I guess you'd
better, because I don't think you have ever killed a big ram, have
you?"
"No," said Joe, "I never killed a ram as big as this, but then I've
killed sheep, and I'll have plenty of chances to hunt when maybe
you won't. You'd better shoot."
"No," said Jack, "I'd rather have you."
"No," said Joe, "you shoot."
"Well, I tell you," said Jack, "let's toss up for it, the way we
did before," and picking up a small flat stone he spat on one side
of it, and said, "we'll call the wet side heads. Now, you call,"
and throwing it up in the air, Joe called "Head" and "tail" came
uppermost.
"All right," said Jack, "that settles it." He stepped forward and
shot, and Joe stood beside him, ready, in case Jack should miss.
At the crack of the gun the two sheep jumped a little, but did not
run away but stood looking in all directions. Jack said to Joe,
"Now you give him another," and Joe fired at the sheep Jack had
shot at. Almost as the gun cracked, the sheep sank to his knees,
and its head fell down. The boys reloaded their guns, and began
to pick their way down the rocks to it. The other ram stood until
they had approached quite near to it, and then suddenly seeming to
become very much frightened, rushed away along the mountain side,
and was soon seen climbing the cliff.
They could see that the ram that had fallen was big and fat, and
knew that they could not take the whole of the meat into camp with
them, and both felt quite sure that they could not bring an animal
up here. At least, if they could do so, it would take all day to
do it. On turning over the sheep and examining it, they found that
the bullet holes made by the two shots were only two inches apart.
Both were shots that would have killed the sheep in a few moments.
This merely meant that Jack's had not given the animal a shock
sufficient to throw it to the ground.
When they had butchered, they found the sheep very fat, and neither
Jack nor Joe liked the idea of leaving the greater part of it up
here on the mountain to waste. "I'll tell you what we'll do, Jack,"
said Joe, "let's each of us take one of the shoulders and try to
carry that down to camp, and then to-morrow we can come up here
with the horses and see if we can get the rest of it down. We can
tell as we go home what sort of a trail there will be up here for
a horse. Of course we can't get him up here over these cliffs that
we climbed, but maybe by following down the stream that runs out of
this basin we can find a horse trail."
When the boys got into camp that night they were both pretty tired.
They told Hugh what they had done, and that it was impossible to
get a horse up as they had gone. Of course there might be some
other way of climbing the hills.
"Well," said Hugh, "now I'll tell you what we'll do to-morrow:
we'll take a pack horse, and all of us go up there on foot, and
we'll take the horse as far as we can, and when we can't get him
any further, why of course we'll have to leave him. Then we can
bring the meat down, or most of it, on our backs, and when we get
to the horse, put it on him, and so get it all to camp."
"Well, Hugh," said Jack, "let's do that; but I tell you, that sheep
is awful heavy. I had all I wanted to carry one of those shoulders
down, and of course the hams will be twice as heavy as the
shoulders. I don't believe either Joe or I can carry those hams."
"Oh, well, we don't any of us know what we can do until we try. I'd
like to stretch my legs on the mountains, and I'll see what we can
do toward bringing in the meat to-morrow."
While breakfast was being cooked next morning Hugh told the boys
to go out and bring in the dun horse, for he was the stoutest and
toughest animal in the bunch, and besides that, Hugh thought him
the best climber.
Before starting, Hugh had the boys point out as nearly as possible
the direction from which they had come the night before, and then
swinging off down the hill, he worked up on the mountain, the
others following close behind. Studying each steep ascent as they
approached it over the more or less level bench below, he avoided
a number of the rock climbs that the boys had made the day before,
and several times led the horse up through ravines where Jack would
not have supposed it possible for any animal except a sheep or a
deer to pass. Jack noticed, too, Hugh's method of climbing. While
he walked briskly across the level and gently sloping country, he
climbed steep ascents rather slowly and stopped frequently. The
boys, of course, did just as he did, and Jack noticed that he was
not nearly so tired or so out of breath as he had been during the
climb of the day before.
During one of the rests which they made just after reaching a
bench, Jack said, "I wonder why it is, Hugh, that I can climb so
much better to-day than I could yesterday. Yesterday I lost my wind
all the time, and it took me a long time to get it back. Every
time I climbed up one of these steep places, when I got to the top
I gave out, and had to throw myself down and pant for a long time
before I could go on. I suppose it's because I've been riding so
much, and doing but little on foot."
"Yes," said Hugh, "I reckon that has something to do with it; but
how did you climb yesterday? Did you hurry on and try to get to the
top of each cliff quick, going as fast as you could, and then stop
and rest for a long time?"
"Yes, that's the way we did. We wanted to get up to the top as
quickly as we could, and see what was over the next hill."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's natural, but I don't think that's the
way to climb 'round among the mountains. You get along as fast,
and I think easier, if you go more slowly and make frequent stops,
but have them short ones. If you go hurrying all the time, you get
all blown by the hard work you're doing, and then when you have to
stop, you have to stop a long time, and after you've rested for a
long time you don't feel much like getting up and going on again;
you're all tired out.
"It always seems to me," he went on, "better to climb a little way
and then stop and take a few deep breaths, and then go on a little
way further, and then stop and breathe again. In that way you are
not nearly so tired at any time, and the whole climb is easier for
you. I have scrambled 'round considerable in the mountains myself,
and that is the way I've learned to climb. You watch through the
rest of the day, and see if you don't find it easier on you than it
was yesterday."
"I will," said Jack. "It seems a good deal easier so far, but
then we haven't climbed anywhere near as steep places as we did
yesterday."
"That's another thing you want to learn," said Hugh: "when you're
climbing the mountains, try always to pick the easiest road; it's
a good deal less trouble to go 'round and take the easy slopes,
even if it's twice as long, than it is to buck right against the
steep face of a hill. Of course there's lots of places where there
are no easy slopes, and you've got to go up over bad steep sliding
shell-rock, and to climb up straight cliffs; but when you can do
it, it pays to take the easy ways."