84 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



it ranges is unsurpassed as a big-game country, and will 

 continue to attract sportsmen from all parts of the world, 

 in consequence of which every precaution should be taken 

 to prevent a reduction in numbers of this splendid animal. 



Dall's Mountain Sheep {Ovis dalli) 

 (plate vii) 



It must have been one of the great occasions of his life 

 when my friend, Doctor E. W. Nelson, now chief of the Bi- 

 ological Survey of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, first saw this most northerly and certainly the 

 most beautiful species of mountain sheep, which he after- 

 wards described, in the mountains of Alaska in 1881. From 

 the fall to the spring its thick coat of rather long pelage is 

 pure white, and its amber-coloured horns have the graceful 

 sweeping spiral typical of the northern species, 0. stonei 

 and 0. dalli. From early June to September the copious 

 winter coat is shed, and the hair is short like that of the 

 Rocky Mountain sheep. Through contact with the red 

 soil and rocks it becomes discoloured and often bears a 

 reddish tint. Intrepid climber of the most rugged peaks 

 of the high northern mountains of Alaska and Canada, it 

 affords a trophy of the finest kind. 



The distribution of Ovis dalli will be most readily ascer- 

 tained by reference to the map. Sheldon states that pure- 

 white sheep, that is, Ovis dalli, are distributed as follows: 

 Throughout the Mackenzie Mountains, within the Macken- 

 zie watershed south farther than latitude 62 degrees. In the 

 Yukon Territory, north of latitude 66 degrees, south of lati- 

 tude 62 degrees, and west of 136 degrees. West of the 

 Lewes and Yukon Rivers they greatly preponderate over 

 the intermediate colour grades. In the Ogilvie Mountains 

 the tendency towards the white 0. dalli prevails increasingly 

 towards the west and north. 



