78 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



pared by Charles Sheldon on the basis of the available in- 

 formation regarding the distribution of these sheep* (p. 82). 

 The mountain sheep are partners with the eagles of the 

 tops of the high mountain ranges. Here on the treeless 

 mountain divides and plateaus, and in the verdant alpine 

 meadows, the sheep find all their needs supplied, and thrive 

 in the altitudes above the limit of tree growth. In these 

 rugged pastures usually one and sometimes two young are 

 born in the spring, and even in the winter, when deep snow 

 drives many of them to the lower altitudes, where protected 

 pastures may be found, or to the foot-hills; others will re- 

 main to eke out an existence by pawing through the snows 

 of the mountain meadows. Always alert and difficult to 

 approach, it offers a great contrast to its phlegmatic and at 

 times unsuspicious mountain neighbour, the mountain goat. 



The Rocky Mountain Sheep {Ovis canadensis) 



(plate vii) 



Distribution, — The justly famous "Big Horn" has as its 

 principal habitat the main range of the Rocky Mountains. 

 From the international boundary on the south it ranges 

 through British Columbia and Alberta to a northern limit, 

 which is found in the region of the Smoky River, on the 

 eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It occurs in the 

 mountains of British Columbia, except in the Coast Moun- 

 tains, from the Kootenays to latitude 55° 30'. Dawson 

 gives its westward range "to the line drawn a certain dis- 

 tance back from the seacoast, approximately along the mid- 

 dle of the Coast Mountains. . . . Within the above area 

 are many ranges and groups in which sheep do not occur." 

 It is found in the Similkameen, Okanagan, Cariboo, and 



* We should be pleased if hunters, surveyors, and others visiting the re- 

 gions inhabited by sheep would send us information regarding the varieties 

 occurring in those regions, in order that our knowledge of their distribution 

 may be mcreased. — C. G. H. 



