IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



country which later became his home, and which 

 now extends from the Sierra Madres to the 

 Arctic Circle. 



One hundred years ago sheep had not all been 

 driven to the higher elevations, but were found 

 in plenteous numbers as far east as the tablelands 

 of the Dakotas, Western Nebraska, etc. The 

 encroach of the hunter and the homesteader in 

 later years drove these bands that were living 

 low, to higher ground in the mountains; thence 

 at a still later period to the rocky cliffs of the 

 mountains and the stretches around timberline. 

 (I do not mean to infer that sheep at that period 

 were not found also in plentiful numbers in the 

 Rockies — even above timberline — for they were; 

 but in addition to their natural habitat in the 

 higher mountains, they had drifted eastward to 

 the tablelands mentioned.) 



Just as there are in reality only three species 

 of bears (the grizzly, black and Polar — all others 

 being sub-species), so also are the main species of 

 sheep confined — namely to two, the ovis cana- 

 densis and ovis dalli. The ovis nelsoni, ovis 

 mexicana, ovis cremnobates, etc., are all branches 

 of the family canadensis, while the ovis fannini, 

 as stated elsewhere, is merely a cross between 

 ovis stonei and ovis dalli. As you come south 

 from the real home of the dalli (the Kenai Penin- 

 sula and the mainlands east of it) you find black 

 hairs mixed with the white of these animals. 

 The farther you journey south toward the nat- 



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