84 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
it ranges is unsurpassed as a big-game country, and will 
continue to attract sportsmen from all parts of the world, 
in consequence of which every precaution should be taken 
to prevent a reduction in numbers of this splendid animal. 
Da.u’s Mountain SHEEP (Ovis dalli) 
(PLATE VII) 
It must have been one of the great occasions of his life 
when my friend, Doctor E. W. Nelson, now chief of the Bi- 
ological Survey of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, first saw this most northerly and certainly the 
most beautiful species of mountain sheep, which he after- 
wards described, in the mountains of Alaska in 1881. From 
the fall to the spring its thick coat of rather long pelage is 
pure white, and its amber-coloured horns have the graceful 
sweeping spiral typical of the northern species, O. stoner 
and O. dalli. From early June to September the copious 
winter coat is shed, and the hair is short like that of the 
Rocky Mountain sheep. Through contact with the red 
soil and rocks it becomes discoloured and often bears a 
reddish tint. Intrepid climber of the most rugged peaks 
of the high northern mountains of Alaska and Canada, it 
affords a trophy of the finest kind. 
The distribution of Ovis dalli will be most readily ascer- 
tained by reference to the map. Sheldon states that pure- 
white sheep, that is, Ovis dalli, are distributed as follows: 
Throughout the Mackenzie Mountains, within the Macken- 
zie watershed south farther than latitude 62 degrees. In the 
Yukon Territory, north of latitude 66 degrees, south of lati- 
tude 62 degrees, and west of 136 degrees. West of the 
Lewes and Yukon Rivers they greatly preponderate over 
the intermediate colour grades. In the Ogilvie Mountains 
the tendency towards the white O, dalli prevails increasingly 
towards the west and north. 
