ushes behind a granite slab, first setting my camera, well camouflaged
with stones, atop the rock, and focusing it toward the point where the
sheep would pass in review. Minutes passed. Not a sheep rounded the
point! More waiting. I sallied forth to reconnoiter. The sheep were
feeding peacefully in the valley below. They had knocked down the
dummy, trampled over it, and retreated along the ledge the way they had
come!

The joke was on me, but it had been a glorious day for all that. I
retrieved the remains of my down-trodden dummy and started home. I
halted midway down to the valley to study some queer records in the
sand. Surely a crazy man had made them! What would a stranger have
thought if he had happened upon that grotesque trail? But a stranger
_had_ been there. On the heels of my crazy trail were the tracks of a
mountain lion. He had been stalking me!

From my experience with these sheep I made some naive deductions and
wrote them in my notebook. From it, lying open before me now, I
transcribe these boyish but none the less accurate observations:

"Mountain sheep have all-seeing eyes--therefore, one keeps in the open
at all times and never attempts stalking them under cover. If you do,
you are acting suspiciously, and they will treat you in the same
manner."

"They will not permit you to approach from above them. They are lofty
minded; so keep your place beneath them."

"If sheep are in the open, and on level ground, they will not permit a
near approach."

"Keep in the open, below them, permit them to retreat to the rocks. If
these rocks give way to sheer cliffs the sheep will feel at home. They
will then permit you to approach quite near."

"Sheep are tremendously curious. Take advantage of this fact and offer
them something in the way of entertainment. If you want to get on with
sheep, make a fool of yourself."

As spring advanced, the ewes left the flock and sought safety among the
cliffs where they raised their young in partial concealment. While
their lambs were yet mere infants, a week old or so, they hid them
among the rocks. Instinctively the youngsters lay low, remaining
immovable until their mothers returned from feeding near by, to claim
them. Eagles hovered high overhead, waiting to drop like plummets upon
the helpless babies. These great birds accounted for many a bleating
little lamb's passing. Lions, likewise, visited the heights and took
toll of mothers as well a