298 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



The type color of Ovis fannini is so rare, even in the 

 mountains from which the type came, that numerous 

 sheep might be killed before one could be found to coin- 

 cide with the description. Now and then it exists among 

 the variables. 



I have learned from sources which I accept as reliable, 

 that the sheep in the Teslin and Atlin Lakes districts are 

 in color like those on the MacMillan, more variables occur- 

 ring among them. Nearer the Yukon, lighter colored 

 sheep predominate, and among the white sheep north of 

 the Yukon a few intermediates are exceptionally found in 

 the Watson River country, and perhaps easterly, wherever 

 sheep exist, as far as the mountains near the head of 

 Selwyn River. Farther north, west of the Yukon River, 

 all are white, except for a few gray hairs in the sheep in 

 the Tanana Hills. 



The variation in the color of the sheep in the Yukon 

 Territory having, therefore, been settled, I resolved to 

 make future explorations in the far interior of Alaska. 



