ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 97 



of common sheep, but the attempt utterly failed. We cannot 

 do better than close the account of this animal with the fol- 

 lowing observations from the pen of Frank Forrester, who is 

 about the only writer that has handled the several animals 

 peculiar to the Rocky Mountains. He says : 



" I conceive that this animal is rarely an object of particular 

 systematic pursuit ; and that when killed at all, it is almost 

 by accident, during the winter season. While among the 

 herbless crags and awful precipices of those dread mountain 

 solitudes, it is not easy to see it ; and when seen, to outclimb 

 and circumvent it, must require that the hunter should be 

 every inch a man. If possible, stalk it having the sun on 

 your back, and in his eyes ; or, approach it from the upper to 

 the lower ground ; for, as it is its nature to keep the upper 

 ground if possible, it consequently keeps the brightest look- 

 out for an enemy's approach from below ; but all depends 

 on the direction of the wind, down which it is impossible to 

 approach it." 



