70 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



theory as being a correct basis of calculation have probably 

 never troubled to reason out the cause of it. The simple 

 solution of cause and effect in this problem appears to me 

 to be this. During the fall and winter of each year the 

 food of sheep is scarce, and after the rutting season the older 

 rams are particularly poor. Throughout the winter, then, 

 their horns cease to grow, but with the increase of good 

 food in the spring the horns commence to grow again, and 

 continue to do so until the following autumn, and hence 

 the formation of a ring around the horn, which shows the 

 point at which the growth of the horn was checked for 

 several months. 



The mountain goat, Orcammts montanits, is found 

 throughout a great part of Alaska, and is said to range as far 

 north as latitude 60'. None of these animals are found in 

 the neighbourhood of Cook's Inlet, nor to the westward on 

 the Alaska Peninsula. They are numerous along the coast 

 farther south, and although this goat is an ungainly-looking 

 beast, it inhabits the most inaccessible places, over which it 

 travels with surprising ease and fearlessness. 



I feel some diffidence in approaching the following 

 subject, but since most sportsmen who have visited the 

 western coast of Alaska have probably heard similar yarns, I 

 will quote a few statements which I gathered in regard to 

 the fabled ibex of Alaska. 



It is a popular theory amongst many prospectors and 

 others w^ho have been far into the mountains of the interior 

 that an animal exists there which is neither a sheep nor a 

 mountain goat. I had long talks on several occasions with 

 one of the oldest and most trustworthy residents, who has 

 lived for many years in the head of Cook's Inlet. He 

 declared to me that he had seen some horns brought out by 



