CHAPTER XIV
A BIGHORN
While Hugh had been working and Jack fishing, Joe had been roamingthe hillsides. He had found some signs of game and killed anotherlittle fawn, but had not been higher up than the first bench abovethe camp. From there, however, he had seen higher mountains risingbeyond, and one night he said to Jack, "Jack, why don't you quitcatching these fish, and let's go up high on the hills here, andsee if we can't kill something?"
"That's a good idea, Joe," said Hugh, "the meat of theseblack-tails is about gone now, and it's a good idea for you boysto go out and kill something more. That last fawn that you got isalmost gone, too. We don't want to keep eating fish all the rest ofthe trip.
"Good enough," said Jack. "I'll go you; and we'll start earlyto-morrow morning. Shall we take horses, Hugh?"
"Why, no," said Hugh, "if I were you I'd leave the horses here torest, and go afoot. You can hunt better afoot, and then if you killanything that's too big for you to pack in, you can come down andget a horse for it."
The next morning the two boys started early, and for a long timescrambled up the hill. When they reached the top of the benchabove camp, they found before them a plateau, more or less level,and beyond that rose another ridge, which cut off the view. Theyclimbed and climbed for a long time, passing over one bench afteranother, and at length, a little before noon, Joe saw far offon the hillside, at about the same level with themselves, threemountain sheep. They were on quite another mountain, for there weretwo wide gorges between them and the boys; and, what was more tothe point, the sheep had already seen them and were looking. So theboys kept on climbing.
At last they reached the rocks, a great brown slope of brokenweathered lichen-covered stones, which rose steeply before them;but the going was not bad, and they climbed up, heading always fora place where the precipices above seemed broken away, so that theycould get through. It was now noon and the sun shone warm, but acool breeze was blowing along the hillside, and the air was freshand invigorating. Jack said, "Now, Joe, when we get to the top ofthis cliff we'll find a sheltered place, and sit down there andeat."
"That will be good," said Joe; "I'm hungry." They had now climbedquite high, and looking across at the mountain on the other side ofthe stream, could see that the timber was small, and that a littlehigher up it seemed to stop. Joe said, "We ought to see sheep uphere, it seems to me."
"I should think so," said Jack, "but we'll have to wait untilwe get to some place where we can get a good look along themountain." Before long they reached a ravine, and clambering up itfor some distance came out on a rocky hillside, from which bothto the north and south they could see a long way over ground thatfor the most part was open and steeply sloping. Above them themountains rose in a series of narrow benches--a bench not more thanfifty feet wide, and then a cliff as high, then another bench,and another cliff, and so on up. Here, choosing a place which wassheltered from the wind, they sat down and rested for a while, atthe same time eating their bread and dried meat, which tasted verygood. When they had finished, Jack said:
"Now, Joe, you know more about the mountains than I do. What shallwe do? Shall we keep on climbing, and try to get up to the top, orshall we walk along one of these benches? I suppose if we do thatwe might easily enough run across some sheep, for at this time ofthe 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 youbefore 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 forsometime longer, and at last found themselves up above the benchesand on a gentle rounded rock slope, where little grass grew. Therewere no trees or tall weeds.
"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 workalong and look down into these ravines, or little basins, or ontothe ledges, and maybe if we see sheep we'll be above them and canget to them."
They followed the ridge down the stream, and in the first ravinethat 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 themountain top there was more or less snow. They had gone more thanhalf a mile when, peering over a crest of rock, they looked downinto a pretty little basin in which there was a good deal of snow,but above the snow grew green grass, and almost below them feedingwere two good sized rams. The animals did not see them, and theydrew back.
"Now, Joe," said Jack, "which of us shall shoot? I guess you'dbetter, because I don't think you have ever killed a big ram, haveyou?"
"No," said Joe, "I never killed a ram as big as this, but then I'vekilled sheep, and I'll have plenty of chances to hunt when maybeyou 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 wedid before," and picking up a small flat stone he spat on one sideof 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" cameuppermost.
"All right," said Jack, "that settles it." He stepped forward andshot, 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 notrun away but stood looking in all directions. Jack said to Joe,"Now you give him another," and Joe fired at the sheep Jack hadshot at. Almost as the gun cracked, the sheep sank to his knees,and its head fell down. The boys reloaded their guns, and beganto pick their way down the rocks to it. The other ram stood untilthey had approached quite near to it, and then suddenly seeming tobecome 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, andknew that they could not take the whole of the meat into camp withthem, and both felt quite sure that they could not bring an animalup here. At least, if they could do so, it would take all day todo it. On turning over the sheep and examining it, they found thatthe 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 shocksufficient to throw it to the ground.
When they had butchered, they found the sheep very fat, and neitherJack nor Joe liked the idea of leaving the greater part of it uphere 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 tocarry that down to camp, and then to-morrow we can come up herewith the horses and see if we can get the rest of it down. We cantell as we go home what sort of a trail there will be up here fora horse. Of course we can't get him up here over these cliffs thatwe climbed, but maybe by following down the stream that runs out ofthis 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 toget a horse up as they had gone. Of course there might be someother 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, andwe'll take the horse as far as we can, and when we can't get himany further, why of course we'll have to leave him. Then we canbring the meat down, or most of it, on our backs, and when we getto 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 sheepis awful heavy. I had all I wanted to carry one of those shouldersdown, and of course the hams will be twice as heavy as theshoulders. 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'dlike to stretch my legs on the mountains, and I'll see what we cando
toward bringing in the meat to-morrow."
While breakfast was being cooked next morning Hugh told the boysto go out and bring in the dun horse, for he was the stoutest andtoughest animal in the bunch, and besides that, Hugh thought himthe best climber.
Before starting, Hugh had the boys point out as nearly as possiblethe direction from which they had come the night before, and thenswinging off down the hill, he worked up on the mountain, theothers following close behind. Studying each steep ascent as theyapproached it over the more or less level bench below, he avoideda number of the rock climbs that the boys had made the day before,and several times led the horse up through ravines where Jack wouldnot have supposed it possible for any animal except a sheep or adeer to pass. Jack noticed, too, Hugh's method of climbing. Whilehe walked briskly across the level and gently sloping country, heclimbed steep ascents rather slowly and stopped frequently. Theboys, of course, did just as he did, and Jack noticed that he wasnot nearly so tired or so out of breath as he had been during theclimb of the day before.
During one of the rests which they made just after reaching abench, Jack said, "I wonder why it is, Hugh, that I can climb somuch better to-day than I could yesterday. Yesterday I lost my windall the time, and it took me a long time to get it back. Everytime I climbed up one of these steep places, when I got to the topI gave out, and had to throw myself down and pant for a long timebefore I could go on. I suppose it's because I've been riding somuch, and doing but little on foot."
"Yes," said Hugh, "I reckon that has something to do with it; buthow did you climb yesterday? Did you hurry on and try to get to thetop of each cliff quick, going as fast as you could, and then stopand rest for a long time?"
"Yes, that's the way we did. We wanted to get up to the top asquickly as we could, and see what was over the next hill."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's natural, but I don't think that's theway 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 getall blown by the hard work you're doing, and then when you have tostop, you have to stop a long time, and after you've rested for along 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 wayand then stop and take a few deep breaths, and then go on a littleway further, and then stop and breathe again. In that way you arenot nearly so tired at any time, and the whole climb is easier foryou. I have scrambled 'round considerable in the mountains myself,and that is the way I've learned to climb. You watch through therest of the day, and see if you don't find it easier on you than itwas yesterday."
"I will," said Jack. "It seems a good deal easier so far, butthen we haven't climbed anywhere near as steep places as we didyesterday."
"That's another thing you want to learn," said Hugh: "when you'reclimbing the mountains, try always to pick the easiest road; it'sa 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 thesteep face of a hill. Of course there's lots of places where thereare no easy slopes, and you've got to go up over bad steep slidingshell-rock, and to climb up straight cliffs; but when you can doit, it pays to take the easy ways."