s of offspring; even bobcats pounced upon
them. Sometimes coyotes or wolves surprised partly grown sheep, that
had brashly ventured too far from sheltering rocks.

While returning home one day I stumbled upon a very young sheep. The
youngster lay low, like a wounded duck. Several times I walked within
a few feet of him, coming closer each time until at length he sprang up
and fled in terror. He took refuge by climbing an almost perpendicular
cliff wall. Camera in hand, I followed as best I could. Fifty feet
up, he came to a point where even his nimble feet could find no
adequate footing. His retreat ended. He scrambled to a little jutting
point not much larger than a hand's breadth, and took refuge there with
all four feet bunched together.

Carefully I worked up toward him. Several times he bleated for his
mother and shifted his position. Every moment I feared he would lose
his footing and plunge down the rock face. Twenty feet below I stopped
because I could climb no higher. Carefully I turned about and faced
the wall, hugging it as closely as possible. Holding the camera at
arm's length, and pointing it straight up, I sprung the shutter. The
click, slight as it was, startled the lamb. He leaped several feet to
another nub of rock, teetered precariously several seconds, then
suddenly his pedestal broke off. Sheep and rock dropped straight
toward me. To avoid the rock, I sprang sideways. The sheep plunged
down upon me as the rock hurtled past. Together we revolved, that
sheep and I, the camera being abandoned in midair to shift for itself.
Together the struggling youngster and I struck the rock, slid and
bounded outward, turning over as we fell, first one on top, then the
other, until at length I clutched a bush growing out of a crevice in
the slide and stopped myself; but the lamb continued his bouncing fall
down the mountain. In all, he must have rolled three hundred feet
before he stopped, his feet sticking up out of the brush like the legs
of an overturned bench.

[Illustration: Sheep and rock dropped straight toward me.]

It was some time before I was able to walk. But as quickly as possible
I went to the rescue of that sheep because I had caused his downfall.
He was still breathing, but unable to stand. With great effort, for he
was heavy and I was shaking from my fall, I carried him down to the
stream and soused him in its icy water. He revived at once. The
camera had smashed to piece