SEARCHING FOR RAMS 55 



line. My glasses revealed twelve peacefully feeding on 

 the green pasture at the bottom of the basin. With the 

 unaided eye, it was a long time before I could make them 

 out and then only as tiny dots. At times, in the moun- 

 tains of that locality, the white sheep are most difficult to 

 see, since their stained coats blend so well with the color 

 of their environment. Many times, even when trying to 

 look most carefully, I was surprised at not seeing them, 

 when they were near and in plain sight. These ewes 

 soon began to run as if startled, and through the glasses 

 I saw a small ram, followed by another band, of thirteen 

 ewes and lambs, chasing them two hundred yards behind. 

 From what I learned later of the habits of sheep, they 

 were no doubt merely running across the level in sport 

 after feeding, and had started to go higher up to rest. 

 Thinking the horns of the ram were larger than they 

 proved to be on closer inspection, I circled around the 

 edge of the cliffs to a point near which I thought they 

 would ascend, and, sitting on the edge of a precipice, 

 waited. Looking across the basin, high up near the 

 top of a lofty mountain, I saw nine more ewes and lambs 

 feeding on almost perpendicular cliffs. Clinging with 

 their feet, they jumped about with indifference to their 

 hazardous location, to get the morsels of green weeds 

 and herbs growing among the rocks. The ewes below 

 were slowly feeding upward; now all banded closely to- 

 gether and ascended directly toward me. 



It was a fascinating sight to watch the sheep. Those 

 on the cliffs beyond appeared like small white spots, now 

 and then almost sparkling in the sun. At times it was 



