The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



boundary of the Yellowstone Park, there are 

 always a number of sheep in winter, and they be- 

 come very tame, having learned by experience that 

 people passing to and fro will not injure them. 

 Men driving up the road from Mammoth Hot 

 Springs to Gardiner, constantly see these sheep, 

 which manifest the utmost indifference to those 

 who are passing them. Sometimes they stand close 

 enough to the road for a driver to reach them with 

 his whip. One winter the surgeon at the post, 

 driving along, came upon a sheep standing in the 

 road, and as it did not move, he had to stop his 

 team for it. He did not dare to drive his horse 

 close up to it. Finally the ram jumped out to one 

 side of the road, and the surgeon drove on. He 

 said he could have touched it with his whip." 



One winter when Mr. Hofer made an extended 

 snowshoe trip through the Park, he passed very 

 close to sheep. It appeared to him that they fear 

 man less along the wagon roads than when he is 

 out on the benches and in the mountains. They 

 seem to care little for man, but if a mountain lion 

 appears in the neighborhood, the sheep are no 

 longer seen. Just where they go is uncertain, but 

 it is believed that they cross the Yellowstone River 

 by swimming. 



In winter, and especially late in the winter, 

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