The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



More sweeping and even more fatal has been 

 the introduction among the wild sheep of an an- 

 thrax, of which, however, very little is known. 



Aside from man, the most important enemies of 

 the sheep in nature are the mountain lion and 

 eagles of two species. These last I believe to be 

 so destructive to newly born sheep and goats that 

 I think it a duty to kill them whenever possible. 



Dr. Edward L. Munson, at that time Assistant 

 Surgeon, U. S. Army, but whose services in more 

 recent years have won him so much credit, and 

 such well deserved promotion, wrote me in 1897 

 the following interesting paragraphs with relation 

 to disease among sheep. He said: 



"The Bear Paw Mountains were full of moun- 

 tain sheep a dozen years ago. One was roped last 

 summer, and this is the only representative which 

 has been seen or heard of there in ten years. The 

 introduction of tame sheep early in the '8o's was 

 followed by a most destructive anthrax, which not 

 only destroyed immense numbers of tame sheep, 

 but also exterminated the wild ones, which ap- 

 peared to be especially susceptible to this disease. 

 In going through these mountains one often finds 

 the skeletons of a number huddled together, and 

 the above is the explanation given by some of rfie 

 older settlers. The mountains are small, and the 



287 



