78 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
pared by Charles Sheldon on the basis of the available in- 
formation regarding the distribution of these sheep* (p. 82). 
The mountain sheep are partners with the eagles of the 
tops of the high mountain ranges. Here on the treeless 
mountain divides and plateaus, and in the verdant alpine 
meadows, the sheep find all their needs supplied, and thrive 
in the altitudes above the limit of tree growth. In these 
rugged pastures usually one and sometimes two young are 
born in the spring, and even in the winter, when deep snow 
drives many of them to the lower altitudes, where protected 
pastures may be found, or to the foot-hills; others will re- 
main to eke out an existence by pawing through the snows 
of the mountain meadows. Always alert and difficult to 
approach, it offers a great contrast to its phlegmatic and at 
times unsuspicious mountain neighbour, the mountain goat. 
Tue Rocky Mountain SHEEP (Ovis canadensis) 
(PLATE VII) 
Distribution.—The justly famous ‘‘Big Horn” has as its 
principal habitat the main range of the Rocky Mountains. 
From the international boundary on the south it ranges 
through British Columbia and Alberta to a northern limit, 
which is found in the region of the Smoky River, on the 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It occurs in the 
mountains of British Columbia, except in the Coast Moun- 
tains, from the Kootenays to latitude 55° 30’. Dawson 
gives its westward range ‘‘to the line drawn a certain dis- 
tance back from the seacoast, approximately along the mid- 
dle of the Coast Mountains. . .. Within the above area 
are many ranges and groups in which sheep do not occur.” 
It is found in the Similkameen, Okanagan, Cariboo, and 
* We should be pleased if hunters, surveyors, and others visiting the re- 
gions inhabited by sheep would send us information regarding the varieties 
occurring in those regions, in order that our knowledge of their distribution 
may be increased.—C. G. H. 
