BIG HORN 53

full flight in a moment, bounding up the opposite
slope. One of them stopped for a moment, looking
back. “Shoot the upper one,’ Dennis shouted, and
at the shot the ram toppled over with a broken back.
It got up on its front legs, however, and slid out over
the slope at a tremendous pace, while the two remaining
rams disappeared over the ridge. I again hit the
wounded ram, but it was not dead when Dennis reached
it and put it out of misery. The first one we found
dead a couple of paces from where it had fallen.

Both were extremely pretty animals, and probably
belonged to the variety Ovis Fannini, as the pelage
was rather greyish in colour, somewhat darker over the
back, but nearly white under the belly and on the legs,
neck, and head.

Unfortunately Dennis had been mistaken as to the
size of the heads. One of them was, perhaps, not so
bad, but the other one was small. Dennis now main-
tained that I had shot the wrong ram and not the one
he had indicated, and that the biggest one had made
its escape, but that was all nonsense, and because he
would not admit his faulty judgment.

The horns of the two rams measured twelve and
three-quarter inches and thirteen inches respectively
round the base and had a length of only twenty-five
and a quarter inches and twenty-five and a half inches.

After taking a couple of photos we cut off the heads
with the neck skin attached, removed the entrails,
etc., as it was our intention to attempt to bring the
horses round next day by a more accessible route and
fetch back the meat. As it was yet rather early in the
day we decided to return to see if our three mountain
goats were still in the same place.