THE WILD SHEEP 305 



save the wolf, and are more guileless and approach 

 able than their tame kindred. 



While engaged in the work of exploring high re 

 gions where they delight to roam I have been greatly 

 interested in studying their habits. In the months 

 of November and December, and probably during 

 a considerable portion of midwinter, they all flock 

 together, male and female, old and young. I once 

 found a complete band of this kind numbering up 

 ward of fifty, which, on being alarmed, went bound 

 ing away across a jagged lava-bed at admirable 

 speed, led by a majestic old ram, with the lambs 

 safe in the middle of the flock. 



In spring and summer, the full-grown rams form 

 separate bands of from three to twenty, and are 

 usually found feeding along the edges of glacier 

 meadows, or resting among the castle-like crags of 

 the high summits ; and whether quietly feeding, or 

 scaling the wild cliffs, their noble forms and the 

 power and beauty of their movements never fail 

 to strike the beholder with lively admiration. 



Their resting-places seem to be chosen with ref 

 erence to sunshine and a wide outlook, and most 

 of all to safety. Their feeding-grounds are among 

 the most beautiful of the wild gardens, bright with 

 daisies and gentians and mats of purple bryan- 

 thus, lying hidden away on rocky headlands and 

 canon sides, where sunshine is abundant, or down 

 in the shady glacier valleys, along the banks of 

 the streams and lakes, where the plushy sod is 

 greenest. Here they feast all summer, the happy 

 wanderers, perhaps relishing the beauty as well as 

 the taste of the lovely flora on which they feed. 



