228 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



forward and outward in a graceful spiral curve not displayed by 

 any other animal known to the wild. These horns have been 

 known to measure thirty-three, and in rare cases forty, inches 

 when measured along the curve, and with a girth at the skull of 

 no less than fifteen or sixteen inches. 



These magnificent animals choose their range far up the most 

 inaccessible mountain ledges, and, when surprised, have the most 

 marvelous ability both to clamber and to leap. They readily 

 leap thirty or forty feet, striking safely on the feet, 1 and a drop 

 down precipices of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 

 is said to be well within their ability. 



This true wild sheep ranges from the mountains of Mexico 

 to those of Alaska. Its flesh is said to equal the best venison, 

 and it would undoubtedly have yielded to domestication if we 

 had not already been well supplied with sheep when the country 

 was discovered. 



On the Asiatic side the Kamchatkan wild sheep (Ovis nivi- 

 cola) closely resembles the bighorn except that he is lighter in 

 body and limb and finer in head and horn. As with him, both 

 sexes are horned. Off to the southwest in northern Mongolia 

 is the closely related argali (Ovis amnion), and further on in the 

 highlands of Tibet is a slightly different species, Ovis hodgsoni. 

 Still further to the southwest in eastern Turkestan, and at an 

 elevation of ten to twelve thousand feet, is the wild Pamir sheep 

 (Ovis poli), the only rival of the bighorn. This fellow can 

 boast a horn measuring as much as sixty inches, but without the 

 magnificent curve of the bighorn, as it stands out somewhat at 

 the side, that is, has a greater spread. The mountain regions 

 of southern Asia are well supplied with sheeplike animals, too 

 numerous in their species even to be enumerated here. 



Off to the west we have the Armenian sheep (Ovis gmelini), 

 in the islands of the Mediterranean the Cyprian (Ovis opJiion), 

 and further west, in Corsica and Sardinia, the Mouflon (Ovis 



1 It is asserted, but upon questionable authority, that a favorite habit of the 

 bighorn when he doubts his legs is to light upon his head. 



