reddish objects were moving, so fast that I at first thought they were
birds upon the wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw that
they were quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge to
ledge, that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to be
animals of the deer species, somewhat larger than sheep or goats; but
we could see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of
huge curving horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the
cliffs to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as
though they were "turning somersaults," and seemed at times to come
down heads foremost! There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to
within less than a hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended
in an abrupt precipice, of some sixty or seventy feet in height above
the plain. The animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along
it until they had arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice, they
suddenly stopped, as if to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view
of them, as they stood outlined against the sky, with their graceful
limbs and great curved horns, almost as large as their bodies. We
thought, of course, they could get no farther for the precipice, and I
was calculating whether my rifle, which I had laid hold of, would
reach them at that distance. All at once, to our astonishment, the
foremost sprang out from the cliff, and whirling through the air, lit
upon his head on the hard plain below! We could see that he came down
upon his horns, and rebounding up again to the height of several feet,
he turned a second somersault, and then dropped upon his legs, and
stood still! Nothing daunted, the rest followed, one after the other,
in quick succession, like so many street-tumblers; and, like them,
after the feat had been performed, the animals stood for a moment, as
if waiting for applause!' These were the _argali_, or wild sheep,
popularly termed bighorns, and resembling an immense yellow goat or
deer furnished with a pair of ram's horns.