The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



lutely observed. Public opinion supports the law, 

 and those disposed to violate it dare not do so for 

 fear of the law. Near Silver Plume, already men- 

 tioned, a drive to see the wild sheep come down 

 to water is one of the regular sights offered to 

 visitors, and while there may be localities where 

 sheep are killed in violation of the law in Colo- 

 rado-, it is certain that there are many where the 

 law is respected. 



There are still a few places where sheep may 

 be found to-day, living somewhat as they used 

 to live before the white men came into the western 

 country. Such places are the extremely rough bad 

 lands of the Missouri River, between the Little 

 Rocky Mountains and the mouth of Milk River, 

 where, on account of the absence of water on the 

 upper prairie and the small areas of the bottoms 

 of the Missouri River, there are as yet few settle- 

 ments. The bad lands are high and rough, scarcely 

 to be traversed except by a man on foot, and in 

 their fastnesses the sheep protected formally by 

 State law, but actually by the rugged country arc 

 still holding their own. They come down to the 

 river at night to water, and returning spend the 

 day feeding on the uplands of the prairie, and rest- 

 ing in beds pawed out of the dry earth of the 

 washed bad lands, just as their ancestors did. 



315 



