THE AMERICAN ARGALI, 49 



the people of the country for their flesh, which is esteemed 

 to be savory, and for their skins, which are made into 

 clothing. In autumn, after having pastured during the sum- 

 mer on the mountains and in the secluded valleys, they are 

 fat, and in high request ; but as winter advances, they are 

 forced to descend from the mountains in search of food ; they 

 then lose their plumpness, and are sought after only for their 

 skins. When taken young they are easily tamed, but the 

 old ones never resign their natural wildness." 



THE AMERICAN ARGALI. 



This supposed variety of the Asiatic Argali is well 

 known as the " big-horn of the Rocky Mountains." 



The Abbe Lambert gives the following account of it : — 

 " Besides several sorts of animals known among us, there 

 are two sorts of fallow beasts unknown in Europe. They 

 call them sheep, because they have the figure of our sheep. 

 The first species is as large as a calf one or two years old. 

 Their head has a great resemblance to that of a stag, and 

 their horns to those of a ram. Their tail and hair, which 

 are speckled, are shorter than those of a stag ; their flesh is 

 very good and delicate." 



The following account was rendered by Capt. Bonneville, 

 and published by Washington Irving in his work entitled 

 the " Rocky Mountains." 



" Amidst this wild and striking scenery. Captain Bonne- 

 ville, for the first time, beheld flocks of ahsata, or big-horn, 

 an animal which frequents these cliffs in great numbers. 

 They accord with the nature of such scenery, and add 

 much to its romantic effect ; bounding like goats from crag 

 to crag, often trooping along the lofty shelves of the moun- 

 tains, under the guidance of some venerable patriarch, with 

 horns twisted lower than liis muzzle, and sometimes peering 

 over the edge of the precipice, so high that they appear 

 scarce bigger than crows ; indeed, it seems a pleasure to 

 them to seek the most rugged and frightful situations, doubt- 

 less from a feeling of security. It has short hair like a deer, 

 and resembles it in shape, but it has the head and horns of 

 a sheep, and its flesh is said to be delicious mutton. It 

 abounds in the Rocky Mountains, from the fiftieth degree 

 of north latitude, quite down to California ; generally in the 

 highest regions capable of vegetation ; sometimes it ventures 

 into the valleys, but on the least alarm, regains its favorite 



5 



