e had more of it. We'll eat it almost all up
in this camp, I'm thinking."

"I suppose we'd better. That reminds me of a story my Uncle Dick told
me," ventured Jesse. "He said he was out fishing with a friend one
time, and they wanted some grasshoppers for bait, and hadn't any way
to carry them. They had a jar of marmalade, so they sat down and ate
all the marmalade, and then they had a good place to keep their
grasshoppers. I suppose if we eat all the meat up, we'll have a place
for the heads."

They all laughed at Jesse's story, but John admitted he would be sorry
when all the bighorn mutton was gone, declaring it to be the best meat
he had ever eaten. Rob expressed wonder at the way the meat was
disappearing.

"I remember, though," said he, "that Sir Alexander Mackenzie tells how
much meat his men would eat in camp. They had a party of ten men and a
dog one day, and they brought in two hundred and fifty pounds of elk
meat. They had had a hearty meal at one o'clock that afternoon, but
they put on the kettles and boiled and ate meat that night, and
roasted the rest on sticks, and by ten o'clock the next day they
didn't have any meat in camp! What do you think about that?"

"Maybe so to-night, maybe so to-morrow no more sheep!" grinned Moise,
with his mouth still full.

"We'll have to hunt as we go on down," said Alex. "We'll be in good
game country almost all the way."

Under the instructions of Alex the boys now finished the preparation
of the sheep heads and scalps, paring off all the meat they could
from the bones, and cleaning the scalps, which they spread out to dry
after salting them carefully.

"I was out with a naturalist one trip," said Alex, "and he collected
all sorts of little animals and snakes, and that sort of thing. When
we wanted to clean the skeleton of a mouse or a snake, we used to
put it in an ant-hill. There were many ants, and in a couple of
weeks they'd picked the bones white and clean, as if they'd been
sand-papered. I suppose we haven't time for that sort of thing now,
though."

"Why couldn't we boil the meat off?" suggested Rob.

"A very good plan for a skull," said Alex, "excepting for a bear
skull. You see, if you put the head of a bear in boiling water, the
tusks will always split open later on. With the bones of the sheep's
head, it will not make so much difference. But we couldn't get the
horns off yet awhile--they'll have to dry out before they will slip
from the pith, and t