The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



in portions of Arizona, Old Mexico, and Lower 

 California, there rise out of frightful deserts buttes 

 and mountain ranges inhabited by different forms 

 of sheep. In that country water is extremely 

 scarce, and the few water holes that exist are visited 

 by the sheep only at long intervals. There are 

 many men who believe that the sheep do not drink 

 at all, but it is chiefly at these water holes that the 

 sheep of the desert are killed. 



At the present day the chief haunts of the moun- 

 tain sheep are the fresh Alpine meadows lying 

 close to timber line, and fenced in by tall peaks; 

 or the rounded grassy slopes which extend from 

 timber line up to the region of perpetual snows. 

 Sitting on the point of some tall mountain the 

 observer may look down on the green meadows, 

 interspersed perhaps with little clumps of low 

 willows which grow along the tiny watercourses 

 whose sources are the snow banks far up the moun- 

 tain side, and if patient in his watch and faithful 

 in his search, he may detect with his glasses at first 

 one or two, and gradually more and more, until at 

 length perhaps ten, fifteen or thirty sheep may be 

 counted, scattered over a considerable area of 

 country. Or, if he climbs higher yet, and over- 

 looks the rounded shoulders which stretch up from 

 the passes toward the highest pinnacles of all 



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