260 CAMP-FIRES, IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



and tough proposition. Even with an old, dry horn, I 

 think no man can take a hammer and break off its tip 

 without first fixing the horn very firmly in a vise. I have 

 recently tried the experiment, with sheep horns dry 

 enough to be as brittle as such horns usually are, and it is 

 my belief that no sheep can break off the tip of a horn 

 save in a fall such as he never would take voluntarily. 

 In leaping down rocky situations, no American mountain 

 sheep could fall upon the tips of his horns without crush- 

 ing his nose ; and that no sheep would willingly do. 



Captain Radcliffe says that he has seen mountain 

 sheep rubbing the ends of their horns against rocks, and 

 he believes that sometimes sheep purposely try to rub off 

 the tips of their horns, because in their upward growth 

 they interfere with the animal's vision, and constitute both 

 an annoyance and a disability.* Similar observations 

 have been made by Mr. F. B. Wellman, of Banff, who 

 shares Captain Radcliffe's belief regarding the purpose 

 of the act. For myself, I cannot agree with these ob- 

 servers concerning the object of this act. It would re- 

 quire an immense amount of effort for a ram to rub away 

 the ends of his horns. 



The Big-Horn is almost strictly a grazing animal. 

 His natural feeding-grounds are the high mountain 

 meadows which lie from 1,000 feet below timberline up to 

 the snow-line. In the mountains of British Columbia they 

 feed mostly around the heads of the slide-ways, where the 

 turf is seldom torn up by the avalanches. Close by are 

 sheltering crags and rock walls that tower far above. 



* See Shields' Magazine, January, 1906. 



