The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



front of me. In a moment I had reloaded and had 

 killed the sheep before it had passed far beyond 

 me ; but for a few seconds I could not comprehend 

 what had happened. Then it came back to me 

 that a few days before I had made from half a 

 dozen cartridges a weight to attach to a fish line 

 for the purpose of sounding the depth of a lake. 

 Evidently a lubricating wad had been imperfect, 

 and dampness had reached the powder. 



Like others of our ungulates, wild sheep are 

 great frequenters of "licks" places where the 

 soil has been more or less impregnated with saline 

 solutions. These licks are visited frequently per- 

 haps daily during the summer months by sheep 

 of all ages, and such points are favorite watching 

 places for men who need meat, and wish to secure 

 it as easily as possible. At a certain lick in 

 northern Montana, shots at sheep may be had 

 almost any day by the man who is willing to watch 

 for them. In the summer of 1903 a bunch of nine 

 especially good rams visited a certain lick each day. 

 The guide of a New York man who was hunting 

 there in June of course in violation of the law 

 took him to the lick. The first day nine rams 

 came, and the New Yorker, after firing many 

 shots, frightened them all away. Perhaps he hit 

 some of them, for the next day only seven re- 



305 



