MAMMALIA—SHEEP. Sie 
their lambs to the most inaccessible heights. Mr Drummond informs us, 
that in the retired parts of the mountains, where the hunters had seldom 
penetrated, he found no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep, 
which there exhibited the simplicity of character so remarkable in the 
domestic species; but that where they had been often fired at, they were 
exceedingly wild, alarmed their companions on the approach of danger by 
a hissing noise, and scaled the rocks with a speed and agility that baffled 
pursuit. He lost several that he had mortally wounded, by their retiring 
to die amongst the secluded precipices. 
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Their favorite feeding places, are grassy knolls, skirted by craggy rocks 
to which they can retreat, when pursued by dogs or wolves. They are 
accustomed to pay daily visits to certain caves in the mountains, that are 
encrusted with a saline efflorescence, of which they are fond. These caves 
are situated in slaty rocks. Mr Drummond says, that the horns of the old 
rams attain a size so enormous, and curve so much forwards and down- 
wards, that they effectually prevent the animal from feeding on level 
ground. Its flesh is said by those who have fed on it, to be quite delicious 
when it is in season, far superior to that of any of the deer species which 
frequent the same quarter, and even exceeding in flavor the finest Englist 
mutton. 
The missionaries who first discovered the Rocky Mountain sheep, describe 
it correctly as possessing the hair and the horns of the ram; and M. Geoffroy 
has also briefly characterized it as having the head of sheep, with the body 
