They had gone over the steep rim as if they had wings.

"Beats hell how sheep can go down without fallin'! An' how they can hide!" He knew they were near at hand and he wasted time peering to spy them out.

Nevertheless, he could not locate them.

Fox waited impatiently for the word to let him prove how easily he could rout them out, but this permission was not forthcoming.
"We're huntin' elk, you Jack-of-all-dogs," reprovingly spoke the hunter to Fox.
So they went on around the rim, and after a couple of miles of travel came to the forest, and then open heads of hollows that widened and deepened down.

Here was excellent pasture and cover for elk.