The Mountain Sheep and its Range 



or six years, although the valley is given over to 

 farming and the upper prairie is covered with 

 cattle. This used to be one of the greatest sheep 

 ranges in all the West; the wide flats of the river 

 bottom, the higher table lands above, and the worn 

 bad lands between, furnishing ideal sheep ground. 

 The last killed there, so far as I know, were a ram 

 and two ewes, which were taken about forty miles 

 below Rosebud Station, on the river, in 1897 

 or 1898. 



Of Wyoming, Mr. Wm. Wells writes: "I have 

 only been up here in northwestern Wyoming for a 

 year, but from what I have seen, sheep are hold- 

 ing their own fairly well, and may be increasing 

 in places. In 1897, Mr. H. D. Shelden, of De- 

 troit, Mich., and myself were hunting sheep just 

 west of the headwaters of Hobacks River. There 

 was a sort of knife-edge ridge running about fif- 

 teen miles north and south, the summit of which 

 was about 2,000 feet above a bench or table-land. 

 The ridge was well watered, and in some places 

 the timber ran nearly up to the top of the ridge. 

 On this ridge there were about 100 sheep, divided 

 into three bands. Each band seemed to make its 

 home in a cup-like hollow on the east side of the 

 ridge, about 500 feet below the crest, but the mem- 

 bers of the different bands seemed to visit back 



327 



