“I reckon there are sheep found all the way up and down the mountains, maybe from the Arctic to Mexico. I’ve heard of a white sheep up North and of a black one, and I’ve been told that sheep were plenty down in the hot desert country in California and Arizona, but I never have been down there and don’t know anything about them. They say that down there they kill ’em by watching the water holes.”
“I suppose,” said Jack, “that there are not many sheep found on the prairie now, are there?”
“No,” replied Hugh, “I guess there are very few, if any at all. You see the prairie is getting covered with cattle now, and where there are cattle there are cowboys, and the cowboys don’t like anything better than the fun of chasing and roping any wild animal that they come across.
“A sheep don’t bear chasing very well. If they get much harried in any place, they get up and move away to where they think they’ll be safer.”
By this time the sun had set and it was quite dark. The roar of the snowslides, heard less and less frequently as the air grew cooler, had now ceased, and before very long Hugh smoked a final pipe, and advised all hands to turn in.
CHAPTER XX
CLIMBING A GREAT MOUNTAIN
AT breakfast the next morning it was decided that they should try to learn something about the great mass of ice that lay in the basin south of the camp, which supplied the water for the river that fell over the cliff.
“Now, if we’re going up there,” said Hugh, “we’ve got a long tramp over the ice, and we want to go as well fixed as we can. We ought to have one gun with us, but we must go roped and take our sticks along. We may find that the ice up there slopes sharply and is smooth, and we ought to have something to help ourselves with.”
“All right,” chimed in both boys, “you tell us what to do and we’ll do it.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “the first thing is to point the ends of those walking sticks again, then shove them into the fire to harden. Next take some charcoal and break it up in your fingers and blacken your noses and cheek bones and your faces under the eyes. Each one of you ought to have a handkerchief or a rag to tie around your heads over the bridge of your nose if the sun gets very bright. That’s a good protection against snow-blindness.”