176 The Mountain Sheep 



Thus it is to be seen that Meriwether Lewis, 

 private secretary to President Jefferson and 

 commander of that great expedition, met the 

 mountain sheep in Dakota, and from there to 

 the Rocky Mountains grew familiar with him ; 

 though not so famiUar as to prevent his later 

 making a confusion between sheep and goats, 

 which, being handed down, delayed for many 

 years a clear knowledge of these animals. To 

 this I shall return when goats are in ques- 

 tion. 



Until very lately, until the eighties, that is to 

 say, sheep were still to be found in plenty where 

 Meriwether Lewis found them among the Bad 

 Lands of Dakota ; and they dwelt in most ranges 

 of the Western mountains from Alaska to Sonora. 

 They had not taken to the peaks exclusively 

 then ; the great table-land was high enough for 

 them. I very well recall a drive in July, 1885, 

 when, from the wagon in which I sat, I saw a 

 little band of them watching us pass, in a country 

 of sage-brush and buttes so insignificant as not to 

 figure as hills upon the map. That was between 

 Medicine Bow and the Platte River. To meet 

 the bighorn there to-day would be a very ex- 

 traordinary circumstance ; and as for Dakota, 



