306 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



the sheep had habitually gone down it to drink at the 

 water below. When we first saw them they were lying 

 sunning themselves on the edge of the canyon, where the 

 rolling grassy country behind it broke off into the sheer 

 descent. It was mid-afternoon and they were under some 

 pines. After a while they got up and began to graze, 

 and soon hopped unconcernedly down the side of the cliff 

 until they were half-way to the bottom. They then 

 grazed along the sides, and spent some time licking at 

 a place where there was evidently a mineral deposit. Be- 

 fore dark they all lay down again on a steeply inclined 

 jutting spur midway between the top and bottom of the 

 canyon. 



Next morning I thought I would like to see them 

 close up, so I walked down three or four miles below 

 where the canyon ended, crossed the stream, and came up 

 the other side until I got on what was literally the stamp- 

 ing-ground of the sheep. Their tracks showed that they 

 had spent their time for many weeks, and probably for 

 all the winter, within a very narrow radius. For perhaps 

 a mile and a half, or two miles at the very outside, they 

 had wandered to and fro on the summit of the canyon, 

 making what was almost a well-beaten path ; always very 

 near and usually on the edge of the cliff, and hardly ever 

 going more than a few yards back into the grassy plain- 

 and-hill country. Their tracks and dung covered the 

 ground. They had also evidently descended into the 

 depths of the canyon wherever there was the slightest 

 break or even lowering in the upper line of the basalt 

 cliffs. Although mountain sheep often browse in winter, 



