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_ BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 385 
numbers may be east of the Rockies, they are certainly 
plentiful enough west of that range. In Cassiar they are very 
numerous, and along the banks of the Frazer I have in one 
Season (1889) seen one band of seventy, one of sixty, and on 
another occasion, late in the fall, a friend of mine and myself 
came upon an immense band feeding in little bunches of 
fifteen and twenty, aggregating, I should think, at least 150. 
I did not and could not count them, but should imagine 
my estimate was absurdly within the limit. M. D. and I took 
them at first sight for strayed cattle from a neighbouring 
tanche. Later on we met a portion of this band going uphill, 
and watched them file past us, within twenty yards of us, each 
beast coming up on to a little mound immediately below our 
ambush, pausing for a moment to look downhill, and then 
making place for the next. In this procession the barren 
ewes led, the ewes and lambs came next, and the rams brought _ 
up the rear, with the biggest ram, for whom we were waiting, 
last of all. But though the Frazer River country contains 
plenty of sheep, neither this country nor Alaska seems to 
produce such fine heads as are found east of the Rockies. 
A 16-inch head (honest measurement) is an exceptionally 
good head for British Columbia. Let those who doubt this 
statement tape their trophies and judge for themselves. East 
of the Rockies larger heads are not uncommon ; the largest 
of which I have any accurate information having been bought 
| at Morley by my friend Mr. Amold Pike. This head 
measured 17°25 ins. round the base of the horn, being, there- 
fore, considerably bigger than the fine heads exhibited by 
‘Messrs. F. Cooper and H. Seton Karr in the American Ex- 
hibition. The record sheep head, according to Ward’s excellent 
_ book, is 41 ins. in length and 17} in circumference. 
Of course, there are stories of heads which measure far 
' more than this—of giant heads with two twists to the horns ; 
_ but they are never seen, although, like most sportsmen, I have 
myself once seen a head, which I did not secure, that will haunt 
E ™e until my shooting days are done. 
is cc 
