72 ZOOLOGY. 



OVIS MONTANA, u v i e r . 



The Rocky Mountain Sheep. 



Baikd, Gen. Eep. Mammals, 1857, 673. 



The Rocky mountain sheep is found at two points in the vicinity of our line of march from 

 San Francisco to the Dalles of the Columbia, viz: at Shasta Butte and on the rocky hills about 

 Ehett and Wright lakes, latitude 42°. 



On the slopes and shoulders of Mount Shasta the Ovis montana exists in large numbers ; so 

 much so that one spur of the mountain has been named "Sheep Rock," and there hunters are 

 always sure of finding them. It is said that the Rocky mountain goat is also to be found there, 

 but of that I have very great doubts. 



About Rhett lake I was much surprised to find the big-horn, as this sheep is there called, for 

 the country, though rough and rocky, has very few high mountains. During the dry season, 

 however, when much of the pasturage of the country has been burned off, and when most of 

 the streams are dry, and water has become confined to oases in the desert, there is a great con- 

 centration of animal life in the vicinity of Wright and Rhett lakes. When we passed them 

 in August, deer, antelope, elk, rabbits, grouse, water fowl, and waders, were exceedingly 

 abundant, and with other animals was the Rocky mountain sheep. We saw them, but killed 

 none ; as always happens in such cases, when they came within shot no one had a gun at 

 hand to shoot them. We, however, found their immense horns lying on the ground, and 

 in them had conclusive evidence of their habitual presence in that locality. 



In skins of the big-horn brought from the head of Salmon river by Lieutenant Day's party, I 

 observed a peculiarity which has not been so marked in the other skins which I have seen. On 

 the back and shoulders was a fine soft fur, which generally lies close to the skin and scarcely 

 observable ; when drawn out it forms a staple of from two to three inches in length, finer than 

 the finest Saxony wool ; while the remainder of the hair is particularly coarse and spongy, like 

 that of the antelope. 



BOS AMERICANUS, Gmelin. 



The Buffalo. 



Baikd, Gen. Eep. Mammals, 1857, G82. 



It will, perhaps, excite some surprise that I include the buffalo in the fauna of our Pacific 

 States, as it is a common opinion that the buffalo is, and has always been, confined to the At- 

 lantic slope of the Rocky mountains. This is not true ; and it is to correct this impression that 

 this note is made. 



The range of the buffalo does not now extend beyond the Rocky mountains, but there are 

 many Indian hunters who have killed them in great numbers to the west of the mountains, on 

 the headwaters of Salmon river, one of the tributaries of the Columbia. 



While I was at the Dalles, the party of Lieut. Day, U. S. A., came in from an expedition 

 to the upper Salmon river, and I was assured by the officers that they had not only seen 

 Indians who claimed to have killed buffalo there, but that, in many places, great numbers of 

 buffalo skulls were still lying on the prairie. 



This is another instance of the penetration of animals, characteristic of the upper Missouri, 

 through into the basin lying between the Rocky mountains and Cascades. The mule and 

 white-tailed (Virginian ?) deer, the muskrat, Townsend's hare, the striped spermophile, (S. 

 lateralis,) &c, seem to indicate that the Cascades present a more formidable barrier for the 

 limitation of specip« than the Rocky mountain chain. 



