It came suddenly out from a gorge of the mountain, and stood upon the giddy edge of a tremendous precipice, at a distance of about two hundred and fifty yards.
"_You_ could not hit that," said a trapper to Henri, who was rather fond of jeering him about his shortsightedness.
"Non!" cried Henri, who didn't see the animal in the least; "say you dat?
ve shall see;" and he let fly with a promptitude that amazed his comrades, and with a result that drew from them peals of laughter.
"Why, you have missed the mountain!" "Oh, non! dat am eempossoble." It was true, nevertheless, for his ball had been arrested in its flight by the stem of a tree not twenty yards before him.
While the shot was yet ringing, and before the laugh above referred to had pealed forth, Dick Varley fired, and the animal, springing wildly into the air, fell down the precipice, and was almost dashed to pieces at their feet.

This Rocky Mountain or big-horned sheep was a particularly large and fine one, but being a patriarch of the flock was not well suited for food.

It was considerably larger in size than the domestic sheep, and might be described as somewhat resembling a deer in the body and a ram in the head.

Its horns were the chief point of interest to Dick; and, truly, they were astounding! Their enormous size was out of all proportion to the animal's body, and they curved backwards and downwards, and then curled up again in a sharp point.
These creatures frequent the inaccessible heights of the Rocky Mountains, and are difficult to approach.

They have a great fondness for salt, and pay regular visits to the numerous caverns of these mountains, which are encrusted with a saline substance.
Walter Cameron now changed his intention of proceeding to the eastward, as he found the country not so full of beaver at that particular spot as he had anticipated.