390 KESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



fifty pounds, considerably greater than that of the deer or do- 

 mesticated sheep. The color is white beneath, grayish brown 

 elsewhere. The horns of the ram are very large, sometimes 

 five inches through at the base and three feet long. The 

 horns, after starting upward, turn backward, then downward, 

 and so round with a circular or spiral shape, the tip inclining 

 outward. Mountaineers assert that these horns are used by 

 the sheep in getting down from the high cliff's which he is 

 fond of frequenting. Instead of clambering down toilsomely 

 over the rugged and broken rocks, he makes an easy job of it 

 by leaping headlong, confidently down, over precipices fifty, 

 yes, one hundred feet high, and alights head first on his horns, 

 which are strong enough to be unbroken by the shock, and 

 elastic enough to throw him ten or fifteen feet into the air 

 and the next time he alights on his feet all right. 



310. Hare. The Californian hare, or " jackass rabbit,'* 

 as it is commonly called, (Lepus califotmicMs) is one of the 

 largest of its class, growing sometimes to be two feet long 

 from the nose to the end of the tail. Its ears are very large, 

 and have suggested the vulgar name. It was once abundant 

 in all the valleys from the Klamath to the Colorado ; it is more 

 rare now. The color beneath is a pale cinnamon ; above it is 

 mixed black and light cinnamon, the longest hairs being of a 

 light smoky-ash color for about half the length, then dark 

 sooty-brown, then pale cinnamon-red, and finally black at the 

 tip. 



The prairie hare (Lepus campestrus) also, one of the largest 

 hares, inhabits the plateau of the Sierra Nevada, Pit River 

 Valley, and the country about the Klamath lakes. It is all 

 white in winter ; in summer yellowish gray, with brownish 

 tinges above and white beneath. The length, from the tip of 

 the nose to the root of the tail, is from seventeen to twenty- 

 three inches ; and the tail and ear each measure about four 

 inches. 



