358 The Rocky Mountain Sheep, 



pressed ; colour^ deep rufous gray^ a large white dish on the 

 rumpr (Audubon and Bacliman, vol. 2, page 163.) 



The Rocky Mountain sheep is the only animal of the genus 

 indigenous to North America, and is confined in its distribution 

 strictly to the range of mountains from which it takes its name. 

 It occurs as far north as latitude 60? and frequents the highest 

 peaks of the mountains southward to California. Tn the far West 

 there is an extraordinary tract of country called by the French 

 Canadian hunters " raauvaises terres," covered over with thousands 

 of conical hills, so narrow at the base and so high that they 

 resemble a collection of vast irregular sugar loaves. These hills 

 are composed of horizontal strata of hardened clay, coal and 

 earth mixed with petrified shells, bones and plants. The same 

 strata, recognized by their colour or composition, are seen in all 

 the hills at the same elevation, thus proving that the valleys have 

 been excavated by running water or some other cause, leaving the 

 hundreds of tall pillar-like eminences as so many islands in the 

 cavity of a sea that has become empty of its waters. 



The Rocky Mountain sheep loves to climb the highest pinnacles 

 of the " mauvaises terres," where neither the prowling wolf nor 

 the wandering hunter can reach or ascend. It is said that they are 

 30 sure-footed that they run at full speed along narrow ledges in 

 the face of perpendicular precipices, five hundred or more feet 

 above the plain. They form paths around the lofty clay clifi's 

 that are sometimes six to eight hundred feet or even fifteen 

 hundred feet high, and mounting to the summit bid defiance to 

 all enemies. One would scarcely suppose that the clumsy foot of 

 a cow was the best adapted for climbing almost perpendicular 

 walls, and yet we find that among the best climbers are the goats 

 and the sheep, with feet constructed upon exactly the same plan. 

 The adaptations of nature consist not only in the contrivance of 

 organic structures, but in the faculty of applying these to most 

 varied purposes, in order to attain certain desired ends. 



The Rocky Mountain sheep is described as resembling a deer 

 with the head of a laro-e ram. " The horns are of immense size, 

 being nearly three feet in length, and with their bases so large 

 that they occupy the whole of the upper part of the head. They 

 form a regular curve, first backwards, then downwards and out- 

 wards, the extremities being eighteen inches apart. They are 

 flattened on the sides and deeply corrugated, the horns rising 

 immediately behind. 



