My rifle and McMahon's shotgun were all the arms we had for seven of us, and we could make but a poor defence if attacked by man or beast, to say nothing of providing ourselves with food.

The mountains on each side were very bare of timber, those on the east side particularly so, and very high and barren.

Toward night we were floating along in a piece of slack water, the river below made a short turn around a high and rocky point almost perpendicular from the water.

There was a terrace along the side of this point about fifty feet up, and the bench grew narrower as it approached the river.

As I was coming down quite close under this bank I saw three mountain sheep on the bench above, and, motioning to the boys, I ran on shore and, with my gun in hand, crept down toward them, keeping a small pine tree between myself and the sheep.