THE BIG-IIOEN, OR MOVNTAIN SHEEP. 403 



and he who has the best range of vision is the person most 

 likely to see them first, and to be the first among them. 

 As they are quite numerous in Montana, Idaho, and in 

 Klamath Basin in Oregon, any amateur may class them 

 among his trophies of the chase, provided he is willing to 

 bear the toil and expense of visiting their haunts. They 

 are common also in Wyoming; and one peak is called 

 Sheep Mountain, from the numbers which formerly fre- 

 quented it. A small remnant or band of Indians who 

 dwell in its vicinity are known as Sheep-eaters, from the 

 fact that they lived principally on the flesh of the big-horn, 

 and that they are more partial to it even now, though they 

 have partaken of the foods used by the white man, than to 

 any other class of meat. Several Western tribes make the 

 flesh into pemmican, and consider it superior to that made 

 from the buffalo, while they use the fat for making candles. 

 These give a bright flame, and burn like a wax-candle. 

 The whites, even, consider wild cutlets a rare delicacy, for 

 the flesh of a big-horn in good condition brings fifteen 

 cents a pound, whereas venison sells for five cents, and 

 often for less. 



I first became acquainted with mountain sheep in Ore- 

 gon, in which State they are still quite numerous along the 

 eastern slope of the Cascade Range, and especially in that 

 vast zoological garden knowm as the Klamath Basin ; and 

 I felt prouder of the first one I killed than I did of all that 

 has since fallen to my lot. The friend in whose company 

 I hunted on that occasion lived in Eastern Oregon, and 

 cultivated a fertile farm at the base of a high and long 

 spur of the above Range. Starting out from his house by 

 half-past 3 a.m., one fine morning in autumn, a long and 

 toilsome climb led us to the summit of a mountain spur; 

 and working our way slowly to the windward along this, 

 and peering about everywhere for "signs," an hour's tramp- 

 ing carried us into a small and green vale, which was bur- 

 ied deep down in the mountain-side. It was covered with 

 the greenest and most luxuriant of grasses, and was hem- 

 med in by dark basaltic crags, sloping terraces, and fune- 



