Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/196

 172 HISTORY OF before he made another bed in the snow. It was evident his time was drawing to a close^ for in the last bed he had laid until we surprised him in the morning. His former plan' was, after we had ceased chasing him, to run a few hundred yards, then lie down for half the night, and rising again, travel o£f fifteen or twenty miles into the neighborhood of his depre- dations, and then rest preparatory to the next night's havoc among the sheep ; but now it was pretty certain that we had tired him too much to waste any time after sheep, and that he did not possess power to travel much farther. When we aroused him this time, he led right off from home, bat we cared not whither he went, so long as he left a track for us to follow him; but this mountain was covered with underbrush, and he appeared to be well acquainted with every inch of ground he ran over, therefore, we could not push him to the extent we desired ; this he was well aware of, and he would choose the most dense and difficult part df the wood ; but he omitted it now, making his usual circuits about the wind-falls, as he had no time to spare, and could not continue his course direct. We followed him with renewed speed for about seven miles, when he left the mountain and directed his course across a valley six miles, to another mountain. Through this valley was clear open wood, and we pressed him so hard that he began to lengthen his jumps, and made no more beds in the snow, until he reached the above mountain, where he had opportunities again to rest, as the side on which he ran was so perpendicular that we made but slow progress. We found that he would drop himself to rest every five minutes, and just keeping so far ahead as to keep out of our sight, although we were confident he saw us continually. On arriv- ing at the top of the mountain, we found he had made a start for a thicket, on the same mountain, before we could overtake him ; but the course he was going was a gradual descent for about fifteen miles, until it terminated at the foot of another