50 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



The Bighorn might be called the Chamois of 

 our western mountains, scaling the rugged cliffs 

 and plunging over precipices with the same 

 agilitv and confidence. The elastic spring of the 

 animal when startled, and the easy, poise of the 

 splendid head are exceedingly graceful, and the 

 animal seems built and ]3roportioned to the finest 

 detail for the adventurous life it leads. 



During the breeding season an old ram pre- 

 sides over the flock of ewes and lambs, driving 

 the younger rams oflf by themselves, as is 

 usual among the polygamous animals. The flocks 

 are exceedingly watchful, and at the slightest 

 alarm are oiT instantly, selecting a course that 



the French Canadians and hunters ' mauvaise 

 terres,' may be formed by imagining some 

 hundred of loaves of sugar of different sizes, 

 irregularly broken and truncated at top, placed 

 somewhat apart, and magnifying them into hills 

 of considerable size. Over these hills and ravines 

 the Rocky Mountain Sheep bound up and down, 

 and you may estimate the difficulty of approach- 

 ing them and conceive the great activity and 

 sure-footedness of this species. They form paths 

 around these irregular clay cones that are at 

 times six to eight hvmdred feet high, and in some 

 situations are even fifteen hundred feet or more 

 above the adjacent prairies ; and along these they 



BIGHORNS GRAZING 

 These Bighorn Sheep have found a grassy slope to their liking 



few animals or men care to follow. In early 

 spring the Sheep venture farther down into the 

 mountain valleys in search of food, but soon 

 return to their rocky fastnesses among the higher 

 slopes. 



From the edges of the Alaskan glaciers to the 

 dry. waterless crags of the Mexican Sierras we 

 find one species or other of the Mountain Sheep. 

 In the '■ Bad Lands,'' the easternmost part of 

 their range, Audubon made the acquaintance of 

 these noble animals in 1843. He says: "The 

 parts of the country usually chosen by the Sheep 

 for their pastures are the most extraordinarily 

 broken and precipitous clay hills or stony emi- 

 nences that exist in the wild regions belonging to 

 the Rocky Mountain chain. Perhaps some idea 

 of the country thev inhabit — which is called bv 



run at full speed, while to the eye of the spec- 

 tator below, these tracks do not appear to be 

 more than a few inches wide, although they are 

 generally from a foot to eighteen inches in 

 breadth. In many places colunms or piles of clay 

 or hardened earth are to be seen eight or ten 

 feet above the adjacent surface, covered or coped 

 with a slaty, flat rock, thus resembling gigantic 

 toadstools, and upon these singular places the 

 Bighorns are frequently seen, gazing at the 

 hunter who is winding about far below, looking 

 like so many statues on their elevated pedestals. 

 One cannot imagine how these animals reach 

 these curious places, especially on these inacces- 

 sible points, beyond the reach of their greatest 

 enemies, the Wolves, which prey upon them 

 whenever they stray into the plains below." 



