The Mountain Sheep and Its Range 



side of the hill. A lion could easily lie there with- 

 out being seen, but could himself see both ways. 

 The game trail was so close that he could jump 

 right down on to it. The number of skulls that 

 we saw here was so remarkable that Col. Pickett 

 and I counted them; there were more than 

 eighteen. 



"The skulls were most of them old — killed a 

 good while before. None of them had the shells 

 of the horns. They were old skulls, and the oldest 

 were almost in fragments, very much weathered. 

 It was the accumulation of a number of years, 

 probably ten or fifteen. To my mind it showed 

 clearly that this was a favorite place for lions to 

 lie for mountain sheep. I have known of some- 

 thing similar to that in Cinnabar Basin, where I 

 have seen a number of skulls scattered along the 

 gulch. There was a heavy trail there which led up 

 to a valley where there is a pass by which we used 

 to wind down to the Yellowstone and Tom Miner 

 Creek and Trapper Creek. 



"Lions are quite bad along the Yellowstone 

 here, and sometimes in a hard winter they seem 

 to be driven out of the mountains, and a consider- 

 able number have been killed on Gardiner River 

 and Reese Creek. 



"If mountain lions are after the sheep, the sheep 

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