The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



and pretty soon I saw the rest of the sheep coming 

 along. They followed his trail and passed him 

 while he was standing there looking back, always 

 looking up at the mountain. While he stood on 

 this knoll where the snow was not deep — for it had 

 blown off — and the other sheep had passed him, 

 one of them took the lead to the next knoll, break- 

 ing the trail, but here the snow was not so deep as 

 that the ram had come through. No sooner had 

 the sheep got to this knoll than the old ram 

 started. He took the trail the others had made, 

 and joined them at the next knoll, and then plung- 

 ing in, went on ahead and broke a fresh trail to the 

 next rise of ground. The ram did most of the 

 trail-breaking, but sometimes one of the others 

 went ahead ; there was always one In the rear, on 

 guard, as it were, until they had crossed the valley 

 to a steep ridge on the next mountain. As they 

 went, they stopped every little while and stood for 

 some time looking back. 



"Knowing the habits of the animal, I felt sure 

 that something had driven them off the mountain. 

 They looked back as If to see whether anything 

 was following, or perhaps to look again at what 

 had frightened them. I thought It was a moun- 

 tain lion. Soon afterward I took my snowshoes 

 and went up that way and found the track of a 



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