THE BIG-HORN SHEEP 



155 



Open, and bid defiance to the elements ; yet, like other game, they often 

 seem to have the knack of foretelling any storm or cold spell of unusual 

 severity and length. On the eve of such a storm they frequently retreat 

 to some secure haven of refuge. This may be a nook or cranny in the 

 rocks, or merely a slight hollow to leeward of a little grove of stunted 

 pines ; and there the band may have to stay without food for several days, 

 until the storm is over. Occasionally they succumb to the deep snow ; but 

 if they have any kind of chance for their lives, this happens less often than 

 with either deer or antelope. 



The big-horn, or cimarron sheep, as the Mexicans call it, is the sole 

 American representative of the different kinds of mountain sheep that are 

 found in the Old World. It is fourfold the weight of the Mediterranean 

 moufflon. Its nearest relative, from which it is with difficulty distinguished, 

 is the huge argali, three or four varieties — some say species — of which 

 are to be found in the high lands of central Asia. The American and 

 Asiatic animals seem to grade into one another as regards size ; the 

 north Asiatic argali is said to be no larger than the big-horn, but the giant 

 Himalayan sheep, or nyan, averages heavier, both in body and horns, and 

 especially in length of legs. The horns of the argali have more outward 

 twist. The largest big-horn of which I have ever been able to get authentic 

 record was one killed in Montana by a ranch friend of mine, and care- 

 fully weighed and measured at the time. At the shoulder he stood just 

 three feet eight inches; he weighed very nearly four hundred pounds; and 

 his single unbroken horn was in girth nineteen inches, and in length along 

 the curve forty-two. But such a ram is a giant. The largest I have 

 myself shot I had no means of weighing: it was just after the rutting 

 season, and he was as gaunt as a greyhound. At the shoulder he stood 

 three feet five inches ; and his horns, which were thick for their length, 

 were in girth sixteen and a half inches, and in length thirty. The 

 nyan of Thibet, on the other hand, stands four feet high ; and exceptional 

 rams have horns twenty-three inches round the base and upwards of fifty 

 in length, while the average full-grown one will perhaps have them seven- 

 teen inches by thirty-eight. The nyan thus certainly stands before the 

 big-horn, although even among full-grown animals many heads of the latter 

 would be above the average of the former. The difference in the habits 

 of the two animals is very marked, for according to the English sports- 

 men the nyan keeps exclusively to the high, open plains, or barren, gently 

 sloping hills ; whereas the big-horn, like the Old World ibex, is a beast of 

 the crags and precipices, and though sometimes venturing into the level 

 country, yet at the first alarm It invariably dashes for the broken ground. 



