208 The Mountain Sheep 



our Indians knew not much more than we did 

 ourselves about the habits of the mountain sheep, 

 and that they did as little reasoning as we did. 

 On the day preceding this, what had been our 

 experience ? To run into bands of ewes and 

 lambs. If the women and children were thus 

 off by themselves in the month of August, it was 

 no great jump to conclude that the men must 

 be keeping each other company somewhere else. 

 When we spied that ram down the gulch sun- 

 ning himself, we should have tried to ascertain 

 whether or not he was alone. As a matter of 

 natural history, the summer season does find 

 the Ovis canadensis, as well as many other of 

 the ruminants, thus separated by sex; and the 

 chances are that if you meet a ewe she is not far 

 from more, and that a ram had better not be pre- 

 sumed solitary until his individual habit has been 

 so proved. You are not likely to find ewes and 

 rams together till the rutting season, 1 in Decem- 

 ber. I have read in some book, or books, that 

 the lambs are dropped in March, but I think this 

 is a somewhat early date, or, rather, that many 



1 The ram's horns cease growing at the time of the rutting sea- 

 son, and do not begin again until the spring brings nourishing food. 

 This causes the rings on the horns, it is said, which indicate the 

 number of winters old the sheep is. 



