By blood marks I tracked him up the mountain towards some precipices. He ran to a series of ledges, made by the outcroppings of the rock strata. I saw him jump from one shelf to another, and hit him with a bullet. But, with vitality like that of a grizzly bear, he kept going. In the excitement of the chase, I never thought of danger and followed him along the shelves. He jumped to a lower series of ledges. If he went farther, I would lose him, so I leaned over the precipice and fired. The place where the goat stood was so narrow I thought he would roll over the precipice; but he fell dead in his tracks. Then the difficulty was to get to the place where the carcass lay. With my rope in one hand and clinging to the rock wall with the other, I crawled along the tier of ledges. I could hear the rocky débris from my feet crashing on the boulders at the foot of the abyss. At last I reached the goat on the narrow ledge. But I had trouble in skinning. The carcass weighed two hundred pounds, and in such cramped quarters it was hard to turn over. With hide partly off, the goat smell was nauseating. But there was no escape. In front was a precipice which had a strange fascination, but I dared not look over. At my back was the rock wall which had such a slant I could not stand erect. Having unjointed the head and finished the skinning, I crawled from the carcass and sat down to rest. Then, for the first time, I saw that a storm was gathering. Dark clouds were settling over the mountains. The air was sultry; and from the look of the sky a heavy snow was coming. I must hasten to a place of safety before the storm set in. With lariat I lashed the head of the goat, with its long sharp horns, inside the pelt, threw one end of the rope to the shelf above, climbed up and pulled the bundle after me. The return trip was more difficult and dangerous; I had not the excitement of the chase to help. On hands and knees I crawled along the narrow ledges and climbed from tier to tier. I came to a buttress which blocked the way. I clung to the cold wall with my fingers and clutched the scant projections of the cliffs. It gave me a sickening sensation, when they crumbled and hurtled into the abyss. On one of the shelves, I came to a steep pitch in the floor. I shoved the pack before me, but it began to slide. Quickly I freed myself from the rope. I lay flat and heard the dull thud of my pack as it struck far below. I thought all my labor was in vain; that the head had been ruined by the fall. But I found it at the foot of the precipice, saved from serious damage by the thick fur of the pelt. Then I skinned the other goat; the two heads and pelts in one pack made, with my rifle, a heavy load.