Professor Harlan on the Rocky Mountain Sheep. 381 



bable that many species have disappeared, and are entirely lost, since the 

 present state of the surface of our globe. 



Suppose an animal to inhabit the shores of the great rivers of America 

 previous to the discovery of this continent, and not to be endowed with 

 the instinct of emigration, to become surrounded by the habitations of ci- 

 vilized man — hemmed in, and cut off from all resources by the march of 

 civilization, the natural consequences would be destruction. 



It may be necessary further to remark, that all the fossil beavers hitherto 

 discovered resemble the recent species. 



3. Account of the Rocky Mountain Sheep. 

 Genus, Capra. Sp. C. montana. 



Ovis montana, Ord, Jour. Philad. Acad. Nat. Sciences, vol. i. part 1, 

 p. 8, 1816. Rupicapra americana, Blain. Antilope americana, Ejus. 

 Nouv. Bull. Soc. Phil. 1816, p. 80. Mazama sericea, Rafin. Amer. Mon. 

 Mag. 1817, p. 44. Antilope lanigera, C. H. Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 p. 38. 1822, Tab. 4, vol. xiii. Rocky Mountain Goat. 



Char. Essent. Horns short, conical, slightly curved backwards, black, 

 and slightly annulated in the old animal ; the colour of the animal en- 

 tirely white, furnished with long silky hairs, and a fine wool beneath the 

 hair ; no mane. 



Dimensions. In bulk it exceeds the sheep. 



Description. Body elongated, but little elevated on the legs; facial 

 line straight ; ears rather long and pointed, covered on the inside with 

 long hairs ; the neck short ; the tail stumpy and directed upwards ; the 

 whole structure of the animal robust ; the colour is entirely white ; the 

 bulk of the animal is considerably increased by a thick coat of long 

 straight hair, of a yellowish tinge ; side of the lower jaw, and beneath the 

 throat, furnished with a long beard; beneath the long hair, the skin is 

 covered with a close downy wool, of a clear white colour, and in young 

 animals feeling like unspun cotton ; on the face and legs the hair is short 

 and close, similar to that of the sheep and goat; the eye-lashes are 

 white ; the horns are about five inches long, above an inch in diameter 

 at base, bending slightly backwards, having two or three annuli, and ter- 

 minating in a point not always obtuse ; the legs exceed in thickness those 

 of a calf ; the fetlocks are short and perpendicular, and the hoofs are of a 

 jet black, high, broad, and with deep grooves in the soles. 



Remarks. Like the Goat, the facial line is nearly straight in the C. 

 montana, this line being more or less arched in the sheep and antelope. 

 Like the goat, the C. montana is furnished with a long beard ; the sheep 

 and the antelopes being destitute of this appendage. 



In the form and size of the hoofs ; in the direction of the tail ; in the 

 form of the snout ; in the strength and proportion of the limbs in particu- 

 lar and of the body in general, our animal resembles the goat, and is un- 

 like the sheep and antelopes ; the latter animals have, besides, never 

 been known to possess a covering consisting of fine long hair, and wool of 

 exceedingly delicate texture, whilst, in this respect, our animal bears a 

 striking analogy to the Cashmere Goat. Though the horns are at best 



