RAMS HIGH IN WARM WEATHER 61

the lower slopes. On some mountains this is feasible,
but usually it is hopeless to find them in their places of
refuge. The sides of most of the plateaux are so badly
cut up with gulches, slide rock, and other obstacles that
yo . would never stop clambering up and down the side
of a hill or trying to find ways of crossing huge ravines,
and the area so covered would be so limited as not to be
worth the labour. Then, in addition, even if by some
remote chance you happened to get into the proximity
of your game, it would be long odds on your being seen
or scented or heard, no matter how skilful you were,
before you sighted it yourself. Therefore, it is far wiser
to possess your soul in patience and wile away the time as
best you can by doing a bit of pot hunting for ptarmigan
and blue grouse with a ‘22 rifle in some place where you
will not risk disturbing the ground you are going to hunt.

As soon as the first break in the clouds comes and the
sun forces its way out with sufficient strength to cut the
fog and begins to melt the snow, the rams will begin
to move higher again, and it will not be long before they
make a trip up to the top and wander about for a time in
hopes of discovering places where the snow is gone and
the feed uncovered. The vegetation on the high ground
is much more to their taste than that lower down, as it is
not only younger but more nutritious.

At such a time nearly everything is in your favour, and
if you have endured the weary wait with patience you
should be rewarded. Unless they happen to be white
sheep, your quarry shows up on the snow so plainly
that both their bodies and horns are visible for twice
the distance they would be otherwise, and though you,
too, are equally visible against the white background,
their eyesight is so splendid that snow or no snow you
must not allow yourself to be seen at all, Of course there
are ranges where little or no previous hunting has been
done, on which you can show yourself with greater im-
punity, as there the rams are often so unsophisticated that
any tyro can kill them without much trouble. But such
ranges are not as common as they used to be ten years