NOVICE’S LUCK 19

The sense of smell of sheep is also keen, though those
of the north do not seem to bother so much about a touch
of man’s scent as do those of the south. In fact, on many
occasions they have failed to pay any attention to what
must have been strongly tainted wind. In the south,
however, the question of wind is an all-important one,
and if you do not keep yourself absolutely hidden is bound
to bring fatal results. Lack of knowledge of the tricks
air currents have of drawing up and down and shifting
from one direction to another is sure to be equally disastrous.

Considering the amount of labour that has to be per-
formed, and the skill and perseverance required, to bring
down a ram, it would appear that anybody who was not
an adept at big-game hunting would find such an under-
taking absolutely hopeless. While this is undoubtedly the
rule, it does not always hold good. There are the pro-
verbial exceptions. Novices are notorious for wonderful
streaks of luck, not only with sheep, but with other game.
One day in Vancouver, not so very long ago, a man—he
was little more than a boy—asked me for the loan of a
rifle. Upon being asked what he wanted it for he said
he thought he would go out that afternoon and kill a bear.
He had lately arrived from England, had never killed a
head of big game in his life, but was keen on beginning.
Somebody had been yarning to him about the number of
bear around town, but had failed to tell him that the
surrounding forest was so dense that, without hounds to
hunt them, his chance of seeing a bear was most remote.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that I undeceived him and
refused to lend him the rifle, as I feared he might shoot
somebody by accident, he managed to borrow one from
another man and away he went. In about two hours he
was back again to get help. He had killed a she-bear and
two yearlings.

I have also known several instances of men who had
hardly fired a rifle in their lives going out after sheep, and
having almost as extraordinary luck as the man with the
bears. One of them had engaged a guide who only
excelled in the amount of liquor he could put away; of

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