MOUNTAIN SHEEP NOTES 263 



hoof of the sheep is more pointed, and its bottom is 

 cup-shaped. 



The natural enemies of the mountain sheep in British 

 Columbia are the golden and the white-headed eagle, and 

 farther south, the puma, or " mountain lion." In the 

 western Kootenay country, a guide who was in the moun- 

 tains in May saw a golden eagle bearing off a mountain 

 sheep lamb. He followed the bird, and finally found its 

 nest, and its brood of eaglets. Around the nest lay the 

 skulls of several lambs, showing that the mother bird had 

 been making a specialty of that kind of food for her 

 young. The young eagles were promptly destroyed. 



On the Shoshone Mountains in Wyoming, east of the 

 Yellowstone Park, my one-time guide, Charles Marston, 

 once saw a puma seize a mountain sheep ram by the 

 throat, and hold on with a fierce grasp of tooth and claw 

 while puma and ram rolled down the mountain side for 

 a number of yards. The puma held fast to the throat, 

 sucking the blood of the ram, until the latter expired. 

 Then, to even up matters, Marston killed the puma. Be- 

 yond a doubt, in localities like Wyoming and Colorado, 

 many mountain sheep have been killed by pumas. 



Although I am no pessimist regarding the perma- 

 nence of animal life, I am compelled to believe that unless 

 several great provincial game and forest reserves are at 

 once set aside in British Columbia, the mountain sheep 

 of that province are doomed to speedy extinction. To 

 the Stoney Indian, to the hungry trapper, and to every 

 sportsman, that fine animal is so great a prize, both for 

 its valuable trophy head and for food, that it will con- 



