20 PRAIRIE WOLF AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 



afterwards, I looked back, and saw the same wolves fol- 

 lowing me. Thinking it scarcely possible that they had 

 devoured the whole deer in so short a space of time, I re- 

 turned, an I was astonished at finding nothing but a pile 

 of bones and hair. A short time afterwards, I killed a 

 black-tailed deer, and it was also in a wretched condition, 

 I merely took the fleeces, (or the meat from the back and 

 ribs,) and left the rest of the animal untouched. I then 

 walked away, and sitting down quietly on a rock, watched 

 the operation of the wolves. They hurried to the deer 

 as if famished, and commenced tugging, snarling, biting, 

 and swallowing, seemingly at the same time. At the 

 end of five minutes, they withdrew, and nothing remained 

 on the ground but a well-picked skeleton. During the 

 day,, they swallowed three entire deer. The voracity of 

 these animals was always astonishing to me for I could 

 not help wondering where they stowed all they ate. The 

 coyote is not as bold and fierce as the large gray wolf, 

 and man has little reason to dread a flock of them. I 

 frequently chased them from my camp, with no weapon 

 but my ramrod. 



My favorite game, in an epicurean point of view, was the 

 Rocky Mountain sheep, called by the Mexicans, the 

 carnero cimaron. This animal partakes of the nature of 

 both the deer and the goat, resembling the latter in its 

 habits and fondness of lofty crags of the mountains, 



