THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 



By G. O. Shields ("Coquina"). 





HE Rocky Mountain Sheep is one of the wildest, 

 wariest, and most difficult to hunt, successfully, of 

 all North American game quadrupeds. His habi- 

 ^' tat being the highest, raggedest, and most forbid- 

 ding mountain ranges, it is only by the most arduous 

 toil, the most wearisome and, in many cases, dangerous 

 climbing, that the hunter can reach the feeding-grounds of 

 the wild Sheep at all; and once there, his skill will be taxed 

 to its utmost to get within ritle-range of the game. He will 

 be fortunate indeed if, after he has crawled a quarter of a 

 mile, and has almost reached the point from which he hoped 

 to make a successful shot, one of the capricious currents of 

 wind that are so often fatal to the hopes of the mountain 

 hunter does not sweep up a canon or around a crag, in a direc- 

 tion immediately opposite to that from which it has been 

 blowing, and carry his scent to the delicate nostrils of Ovls, 

 for the sense of smell in this animal is equally as keen as 

 that of sight. He will also be fortunate if, after hours of 

 careful and tedious, time-killing and back-breaking stalk- 

 ing, he does not disphice a loose rock and start it rolling 

 down the mountain, or if he does not break a dry juniper- 

 twig, the sound of either of which would send the game 

 leaping and dancing away among the crags. 



The Big Horn is gregarious in its tastes, and a few years 

 ago bands of several hundred were frequently seen together. 

 Now it is rare indeed that so many as fifty are found in one 

 place. The sportsman is extremely fortunate who can find 

 a band of ten or fifteen after riding and climbing a week to 

 reach their range. 



