THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 



IGHHORN is the name by 

 which this interesting 

 animal is chiefly known 

 to western people, it being 

 found in greater or less 

 abundance from the Missouri River 

 to the Pacific Ocean. It also occurs 

 in New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern 

 California, but it has not been dis- 

 covered in any numbers south of 

 the United States. It is more numer- 

 ous in the Rocky Mountains, the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the 

 Coast Range, but it is by no means 

 confined to the mountains, being also 

 numerous along the Mauvaises Terres 

 or the "Bad Lands" of the White 

 River, the Little Missouri, Yellow- 

 stone, and Upper Missouri, in whose 

 desolate and arid wastes it apparently 

 delights. The Bighorn, in fact, finds 

 in every rough country sufficient for 

 its requirements, and it demands only 

 that there shall be steep and difficult 

 heights to which it may retreat when 

 pursued. Every species of sheep 

 would prefer a hilly habitat, but the 

 Bighorn could scarcely exist on a 

 level plain. 



Somebody has said that Mountain 

 Sheep would be aptly described as 

 having the head of a sheep with the 

 body of a deer. In size, however, it 

 exceeds the largest deer, and a full- 

 grown specimen will weigh from 300 

 to 350 pounds. Sir John Richardson 

 gives the following measurements of 

 an old male: Length to end of tail, 

 6 feet; height at shoulder, 3 feet 5 

 inches; length of tail, 2 inches; length 

 of horn along the curve, 2 feet 10 

 inches; circumference of horn at the 

 base, I foot i inch; distance from top 

 of one horn to top of its fellow, 2 feet 

 3 inches. The coat is soft to the 

 touch, the hair resem.bling that of the 

 Caribou Deer, and, in some degree, 



that of the Antelope. It is short, fine, 

 and flexible in its first growth in the 

 autumn, but becomes longer as the 

 season advances, until in winter the 

 hair is so thick and close set that it 

 stands erect. As the winter advances 

 the dark tips of the hair are rubbed off 

 so that by spring the old males are 

 quite white. Under the hair a fine 

 wool covers the skin. 



The movements of the Bighorn are 

 quite graceful, and the agility and 

 lightness with which it scales steep 

 bluffs, runs along the narrowest edge 

 on the face of a precipice, or leaps 

 from rock to rock in its descent from 

 some mountain-top, are excelled by no 

 other animal. These Sheep feed early 

 in the morning, and retire during the 

 middle of the day to points high up 

 on the bluffs or mountains where they 

 rest until sundown, when they return 

 to their feeding grounds. Except 

 during the month of December the 

 old rams are found in small bands by 

 themselves, the females and young 

 associating together in companies of 

 from five to twenty. In a country where 

 they have not been disturbed by man 

 they are occasionally seen in much 

 larger herds. 



No animal is more shy and wary 

 than the Bighorn, and it therefore 

 requires in its successful pursuit the 

 greatest patience and deliberation, as, 

 if it receives the slightest hint of the 

 enemy's presence, it immediately dis- 

 appears. Many a hunter of experience 

 has never killed a Mountain Sheep, as 

 these vigilant mountain climbers are 

 usually able to elude their enemies. 



The instinct of self-preservation is 

 remarkably developed in the Mountain 

 Sheep, and only animals of equal agil- 

 ity and superior cunning can secure 

 them. In their mountain fastnesses 

 they are comparatively free from the 



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