102 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Locality Not more Not less 



than than 



International boundary to Crowsnest pass 1000 SOO 



Crowsnest pass to Rocky Mountains park 800 400 



Rocky Mountains park 700 500 



Rocky Mountains park to head of Athabaska river 450 200 



Athabaska drainage 250 75 



Brazeau drainage 200 100 



Total , 3400 1775 



Since the big-horn is found throughout a greater range in British 

 Columbia than in Alberta, it seems probable that there are many more 

 in the former province. Still it must be recognized that good sheep 

 country in British Columbia is limited in extent, while a large portion 

 of the Alberta Rockies aflfords suitable range. The latest available 

 estimate of mountain sheep in the States, where it is considered nearly 

 extinct, is 6,300 head. 



The range preferred by the big-horn on the East slope is quite 

 distinctive in character. Throughout the Rockies there are wide belts 

 of shale or shaly limestone interbedded with the pure limestone forma- 

 tions. On the surface these softer shaly layers are often miles in 

 width, being, of course, parallel to the trend of the ranges and, from 

 their composition, weather out more rapidly, forming broad trough-like 

 valleys, long, rounded ridges and extended slopes above timber-line. 

 These slopes are covered with a low, thick growth of small alpine 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants and form the favourite grazing ground 

 of the mountain sheep. Often the innumerable short valleys that cut 

 back into the ranges will terminate in a perpendiciilar rock wall, at 

 the base of which a long talus slope will show many patches of shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants. Such sites are favourite haunts of the big- 

 horn, which, if undisturbed, will sometimes remain for days quietly 

 browsing over a few acres of mountain meadow. On the first sign of 

 danger, the band will retreat to the cliffs, up which they climb with 

 the greatest ease, to disappear among the peaks and basins of the higher 

 summits. The mountain sheep is not, however, a rock-loving animal. 

 It can, when necessary, climb the most tremendous cliffs with ease and 

 certainty, but prefers to graze among the high alpine slopes above 

 timber-line below the towering rock piniiacles that form the numerous 

 ranges of the Rocky mountains. The pictures frequently seen of big- 

 horn poised on the rim of a stupendous wall of rock, ga:zing off across 

 a wide-spreading valley, are quite true to life., but, as a general rule in 

 the Rockies, the rear side of such a wall is a long, grassy slope, up 

 which it is often by no means difficult to take a train of pack horses. 



