MOUNTAIN SHEEP NOTES 257 



hair was intact. Of course those humps had been caused 

 by fighting, long continued and oft renewed. When the 

 horns of the combatants crashed together at their bases, 

 the noses of the rams also struck together. On dissecting 

 the heads, we found the skin over each hump quite free 

 from the nasal bones, but underneath the skin there had 

 formed a layer of tough gristle three-quarters of an inch 

 thick, and apparently of a permanent character. 



The accompanying photograph shows the appearance 

 of the head of " the Brooklyn Ram "; but this hump was 

 not so large as that on Ram No. i. 



On dissecting the heads of Mr. Phillips's oldest moun- 

 tain rams, a hump on the top of the neck, partly covering 

 the base of the skull, also attracted general attention. In 

 each case the calloused excrescence was very large, 

 sharply defined, and so slightly merged into the upper 

 surface of the neck that it was the work of but a moment 

 to detach one, bodily, with the knife. 



I cut off the largest hump, and preserved it in alcohol. 

 It was two and one-eighth inches high, six inches in 

 length on the curve, and seven inches in width on the 

 curve. The accompanying sketch shows the position and 

 proportions of this strange growth. As found upon a 

 freshly-killed animal, it has the density and toughness of 

 a mass of soft rubber. Its composition is of tough white 

 fibre and fat, and while very solid it is not as dense as a 

 large tendon. As detached, the mass weighs sixteen 

 ounces. It could easily be dismissed by calling it a 

 nuchal callosity. 



Naturally, this huge bunch of combined elasticity and 



