The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



and from this it is commonly inferred that they 

 arc confined to the mountains, and live solely 

 among the rocks. In a measure this belief is true 

 to-day, but it was not invariably so in old times. 

 As in Asia, so in America, the wild sheep is an in- 

 habitant of the high grass land plateaus. It de- 

 lights in the elevated prairies, but near these 

 prairies it must have rough or broken country to 

 which it may retreat when pursued by its enemies. 

 Before the days of the railroad and the settlements 

 in the West, the sheep was often found on the 

 prairie. It was then abundant in many localities 

 where to-day farmers have their wheat fields, and 

 to some extent shared the feeding ground of the 

 antelope and the buffalo. Many and many a time 

 while riding over the prairie, I have seen among 

 the antelope that loped carelessly out of the way 

 of the wagon before which I was riding, a few 

 sheep, which would finally separate themselves 

 from the antelope and run up to rising ground, 

 there to stand and call until we had come too 

 near them, when they would lope off and finally be 

 seen climbing some steep butte or bluff, and there 

 pausing for a last look, would disappear. 



Those were the days when if a man had a deer, 

 a sheep, an antelope, or the bosse ribs of a buf- 

 falo cow on his pack or in his wagon, it did not 



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