urse, they
could get no farther for the precipice, and I was calculating whether my
rifle--which I had laid hold of--would reach them at that distance. All
at once, to our astonishment, the foremost sprang out from the cliff;
and whirling through the air, lit upon his head on the hard plain
below!" We could see that he came down upon his horns, and rebounding
up again to the height of several feet, turned a second somersault, and
then dropped upon his legs, and stood still! Nothing daunted the rest
followed, one after the other in quick succession, like so many
street-tumblers, and like them--after the feat had been performed--the
animals stood for a moment, as if waiting for applause!

"The spot where they had dropped was not more than fifty paces from our
camp; but I was so astonished at the tremendous leap, that I quite
forgot the rifle I held in my hands. The animals, too, seemed equally
astonished upon discovering us--which they now did for the first time.
The yelping of the dogs, who rushed forward at the moment, brought me to
myself again, as it did also the strangers to a sense of their dangerous
proximity; and, wheeling suddenly, they bounded back for the mountain.
I fired after them at random; but we all supposed without effect, as the
whole five kept on to the foot of the mountain, followed by the dogs.
Presently they commenced ascending, as though they had wings; but we
noticed that one of them hung in the rear, and seemed to leap upward
with difficulty. Upon this one our eyes became fixed, as we now fancied
it was wounded. We were right in this. The rest soon disappeared out
of sight; but that which lagged behind, on leaping for a high ledge,
came short in the attempt, and rolled backward down the face of the
mountain. The next moment we saw him struggling between the mastiffs.

"Cudjo, frank, and Harry, ran together up the steep; and soon returned,
bringing the animal along with them quite dead--as the dogs had put an
end to him. It was a good load for Cudjo, and proved upon closer
acquaintance to be as large as a fallow-deer. From the huge wrinkled
horns, and other marks, I knew it to be the _argali_, or wild sheep,
known among hunters by the name of the `bighorn,' and sometimes spoken
of in books as the `Rocky Mountain sheep,' although in its general
appearance it looked more like an immense yellow goat, or deer with a
pair of rams' horns stuck upon his head. We knew, however, it was not
bad