(Roc% (mounfoin T3?onberfcmb 



the fun of it. The duration of these excursions 

 may be a few hours or several days. 



Most of the time the full-grown rams form 

 one flock; the ewes and youngsters flock by 

 themselves. Severe storms or harassing enemies 

 may briefly unite these flocks. One hundred 

 and forty is the largest flock I ever counted. 

 This was in June, on Specimen Mountain, Colo- 

 rado; and the sheep had apparently assembled 

 for the purpose of licking salty, alkaline earth 

 near the top of this mountain. Wild sheep ap- 

 pear to have an insatiable craving for salt and 

 will travel a day's journey to obtain it. Occa- 

 sionally they will cross a high, broken moun- 

 tain-range and repeatedly expose themselves 

 to danger, in order to visit a salt lick. 



The young lambs, one or two at a birth, are 

 usually born about the first of May in the 

 alpine heights above timber-line. What a 

 wildly royal and romantic birthplace! The 

 strange world spreading far below and far away; 

 crags, snowdrifts, brilliant flowers, — a hanging 

 wild garden, with the ptarmigan and the rosy 

 finches for companions! The mother has sole 



38 



