Mountain Sheep. 227 



are carried proudly erect by the massive neck ; every 

 motion of the body is made with perfect poise ; and there 

 seems to be no ground so difficult that the big-horn 

 cannot cross it. There is probably no animal in the 

 world his superior in climbing ; and his only equals are 

 the other species of mountain sheep and the ibexes. No 

 matter how sheer the cliff, if there are ever so tiny cracks 

 or breaks in the surface, the big-horn will bound up or 

 down it with wonderful ease and seeming absence of 

 effort. The perpendicular bounds it can make are 

 truly startling in strong contrast with its distant rela- 

 tive the prong-horn which can leap almost any level 

 jump but seems unable to clear the smallest height. In 

 descending a sheer wall of rock the big-horn holds all four 

 feet together and goes down in long jumps, bounding 

 off the surface almost like a rubber ball every time he 

 strikes it. The way that one will vanish over the rough- 

 est and most broken ground is a perpetual surprise to any 

 one that has hunted them ; and the ewes are quite as skil- 

 ful as the rams, while even the very young lambs seem 

 almost as well able to climb, and certainly follow wher- 

 ever their elders lead. Time and again one will rush 

 over a cliff to what appears certain death, and will gallop 

 away from the bottom unharmed. Their perfect self-con- 

 fidence seems to be justified, however, for they never 

 slip or make a misstep, even on the narrowest ledges 

 when covered with ice and snow. And all their marvel- 

 lous jumping and climbing is done with an apparent 

 ease that renders it the more wonderful. Rapid though 

 the movements of one are they are made without any 



