APPENDIX 193 



correctly reported what they have seen, the writer believes 

 that neither of the naturalists mentioned have visited the 

 sheep ranges covered by the writer, and it may, therefore, 

 be scientifically interesting to chronicle the fact that, of all 

 the sheep examined by the writer and his party over con- 

 siderable extent of territory, in the months of August and 

 September, not one sheep was observed that had a stained 

 or dingy coat; in fact, all the sheep were a pure white with 

 unstained immaculate pellage. Nor does the writer mean to 

 suggest that the sheep seen by him are a different variety or 

 species from the Dall sheep, as he believes they are a true 

 Dall type, but with none of the dinginess observed by Mr. 

 Nelson and Mr. Sheldon. 



Why this should be is purely speculative, though the rea- 

 son may possibly be found in the fact that even in sum- 

 mer the crests of the mountains visited by the writer are cov- 

 ered with snow and hence the sheep which rest on the heights 

 do not have an opportunity to become stained; and yet this 

 snow presence is not invariably existent, as there are many 

 of the lower mountains inhabited by sheep that were not 

 covered with snow, yet the pellage remained pure white. 

 So immaculate is the pellage of these sheep, even in summer, 

 that where stalking them against the snow background, even 

 with ten-power binoculars and at close range, it is very diffi- 

 cult to pick them out, so closely do they match the white 

 background. Nor did any of the sheep observed have spor- 

 adic gray or dark hairs as reported by various observers of 

 Dall sheep in other ranges. 



The horns of the sheep observed by the writer and his 

 party were invariably of the diverging type, by which is 

 meant that in their curl, the horns spread out from the head 



