UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 143-153, 4 text-figures May 9, 1912 



THE BIGHORN OF THE SIERRA NEVADA 



BY 



JOSEPH ORINNELL 

 (Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) 



There is plenty of unquestionable testimony indicating the 

 former occurrence of mountain sheep widely through the high 

 Sierra Nevada of California, almost uninterruptedly from the 

 vicinity of Mount Shasta southward to the Mount Whitney 

 region. But the more recent published statements ( Stephens, 

 1906, p. 58, and Allen, 1912, p. 25) have been to the effect that 

 the form represented is now probably extinct. 



Members of the Sierra Club, however, have reported the 

 presence of sheep within a few years in the precipitous area at 

 the extreme headwaters of the Kings and Kaweah rivers; and 

 in the late summer of 1911, the author learned from cattlemen 

 and others in Inyo County that sheep, far from being extinct, 

 still occur in bands of as many as forty individuals along the 

 Sierran divide in the Rae Lake and Kearsarge Pass country. 



Since the specific identity of the sheep of the high Sierras 

 appeared to be quite unknown, it became highly desirable that 

 specimens be obtained. To this end the California Fish and 

 Game Commission granted the necessary permit for the collect- 

 ing of some specimens for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 

 Miss Annie M. Alexander provided a special fund to meet the 

 expenses of the trip, and II. A. Carr was detailed to do the field 

 work necessary. 



In the persons of E. II. Ober and J. W. Drouillard, of Big- 

 Pine, and C. J. Walters, of Independence, who knew thoroughly 

 the country to be visited, Carr found all that could be asked for 

 in the way of practical assistance. The three succeeded in 



