1 62 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



ment of elastic, sinewy strength and self-command rather than of mere 

 nervous agility. He hardly ever makes a mistake, even when rushing at 

 speed over the slipper)-, ice-coated crags in winter. 



The most difficult of all climbine is to eo over rocks when the ice has 

 filled up all the chinks and crannies, and the flat slabs are glassy in their 

 hard smoothness. A black-tail buck is no mean climber ; yet under such 

 circumstances I have seen one lose his footing and tumble head over 

 heels, scraping great handfuls of hair off his hide ; but I have never 

 known a big-horn to make a misstep. This is undoubtedly largely owing 

 to the difference between the two animals in the structure of their feet. 

 A sheep's hoof is an elastic pad, only the rims and the toe-points being 

 hard, and it thus gets a good grip on the slightest projection, or on any 

 little roughness in the rock. The tracks are very different from deer 

 tracks, being nearly square in form, instead of heart-shaped, the prints 

 of the toes rather deep and wide apart, even when the animal has been 

 walking. 



A band of sheep will often seem to court certain death by plunging 

 off the brink of what looks like a perpendicular cliff, where there is not a 

 ledge or a crack yielding foot-hold. In such cases, if the cliff is high, it 

 will be found on examination that it is not quite perpendicular, and that 

 the sheep, in making the fearful descent, from time to time touch or strike 

 the cliff with their hoofs, thus going down in long bounds, keeping their 

 poise all the time. The final bound is often made almost head first, as if 

 they were diving. 



Narrow ledges, overlooking an abyss the fathomless depths of which 

 would make even a trained cragsman giddy, are very favorite resorts. 

 So are the crests of the ridges themselves. If in any patch of Bad Lands 

 there is an unusually high chain of steep, bare clay buttes, mountain sheep 

 are sure to select their tops as a regular parade-ground. After a rain the 

 clay takes their hoof-prints as clearly as if it were sealing-wax, and all 

 along the top of the crest they beat out a regular walk from one end to the 

 other, with occasional little side-paths leading out to some overhanging 

 shoulder or jutting spur, from whence there is a good view of the sur- 

 rounding country. 



Generally the band is led by a ewe ; but in a case of immediate and 

 pressing danger the ram assumes the headship. Aside from man, moun- 

 tain sheep have fewer foes than most other game. Bears are too 

 clumsy to catch them ; and lynx and fox, inveterate enemies of fawns, 

 rarely get up to the high, breezy nurseries of the young lambs. Wolves 

 and cougars, however, harass them greatly. A wolf will not attack an old 



