14 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



are white; the rest of the body aud the neck are of a pale amber, or 

 dusky wood-brown. A deeper and more lustrous brown prevails on the 

 fore part of the legs. The tail is dark brown, and a narrow brown line, 

 extending from its base, divides the buttock, and unites with the brown 

 color of the back. The colors reside in the ends of the hair, and, as 

 these are rubbed off during the progress of winter, the tint becomes 

 paler. The old rams are almost totally white in the spring. The horns 

 of the female are much smaller and nearly erect, having but a slight 

 curvature and an inclination backward and outward. The young 

 rams and the females herd together during the winter and spring while 

 the old rams form separate flocks, except during the month of Decem- 

 ber, which is their rutting season. The ewes bring forth in June or 

 July, and then retire with their lambs to the most inaccessible heights. 

 Where the hunters have not penetrated and have not annoyed them 

 they are approached with some ease, but where they have been often 

 iired at they are exceedingly wild, and, alarming their companions on 

 the approach of danger by a hissing noise, they scale the rocks with a 

 speed and agility that baffles pursuit. Their favorite feeding places 

 are grassy knolls skirted by craggy rock?, to which they can retreat 

 when pursued by dogs and wolves. The horns of the old rams attain 

 a size so enormous, and curve so much forward and downward, that 

 they effectually prevent the animal from feeding on level ground. The 

 flesh of these sheep, when in season, was quite delicious, much superior 

 to that of the deer species and exceeding in flavor the finest English 

 mutton. The Indians esteemed it as food fit for the gods. 



The dimensions of an old ram, killed early in this century on the 

 south branch of the Mackenzie Eiver, are given by Eichardson * as 

 follows : 



Feet. Inches. 



Length of head and hody 6 



Height at the foreshoulders 3 5 



Length of tail 2 



Length of horn, measured along its curvature 2 19 



Circumference of horn at base 1 1 



Distance from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other 2 3 



A ram and ewe obtained by John Muir, near the Modoc lava beds, 

 northeast of Mount Shasta, measured as follows : 



Heiglit at slioulders 



Girtn around shoulders 



Length from nose to root of tail 



Length of ears 



Length of tail 



Length of horns around onr ve 



Distance across from tip to tip of horns . 

 Circumference of horns at base 



* "Fauna Boreali-Americana." John Richardson. London, 1829. 



