Wilderness Reserves 



game which at times travel in immense droves like 

 the buffalo of the old days. 



A couple of days after leaving Cottonwood 

 Creek — where we had spent several days — we 

 cam.ped at the Yellowstone Cafion below Tower 

 Falls. Here we saw a second band of mountain 

 sheep, numbering only eight — none of them old 

 rams. We were camped on the west side of the 

 canon; the sheep had their abode on the opposite 

 side, where they had spent the winter. It has re- 

 cently been customary among some authorities, 

 especially the English hunters and naturalists who 

 have written of the x^siatic sheep, to speak as if 

 sheep were naturally creatures of the plains rather 

 than mountain climbers. I know nothing of old 

 world sheep, but the Rocky Mountain bighorn is 

 to the full as characteristic a mountain animal, in 

 every sense of the word, as the chamois, and, I 

 think, as the ibex. These sheep were well known 

 to the road builders, who had spent the winter in 

 the locality. They told me they never went back 

 on the plains, but throughout the winter had spent 

 their days and nights on the top of the cliff and 

 along its face. This cliff was an alternation of 

 sheer precipices and very steep inclines. When 

 coated with ice it would be difficult to imagine an 

 uglier bit of climbing; but throughout the winter, 



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