CHAPTER XXIII. 161 



upland regions and is the typical deer o£ the Forest Reserve. I have 

 seen it on the slopes of steep canyons which radiate from the San 

 Gabriel, where it finds almost absolute protection in its resemblance to 

 the chaparral; a dainty little creature, as graceful as an antelope, and 

 while affecting the deep brush, it may be seen in the wide washes, or in 

 the early morning on the mountain edge of some remote ranch. This 

 beautiful deer ranges up to an altitude of five or six thousand feet in 

 Southern California, frequenting in summer the groves of large trees on 

 the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains; in winter it Is driven down 

 to lower levels by the snow. 



Not many years ago the Forest Reserves were the home of the big- 

 horn or mountain sheep — Ovis montana — the representative in this 

 country of the nayaur of Nepaul and Thibet; a noble animal to have 

 met comparative extermination at the hands of the pot hunter. The 

 male has an imposing armament in its curved and cyeased horns which 

 attain enormous development. The animal may still be found from one 

 end of the Reserves to the other; but hunted from peak to peak, from 

 plain to valley for years, without laws for its protection or hunters to 

 obey a law if it was in force, it has gradually disappeared, and it would 

 be difficult to find It in the southern ranges today. I have seen three 

 heads of bucks taken on the slopes of San Antonio within the past ten 

 or twelve years, and doubtless a small flock still holds its own on the 

 precipitous sides of this mountain; but unless game laws are enforced, 

 the complete extermination of the animal in California will soon be ac- 

 complished. 



One of the crimes of the century was the destruction of the bison. 

 Another is the wiping out of the only American antelope — Antilocapra 

 americana — which is now in progress. It is the most interesting and 

 graceful of all the American ungulates representing the great African 

 family in America. Formerly vast herds could be seen in the San Joa- 

 quin valley, and undoubtedly it ranged all the valleys of California. It 

 is a lowland form affecting the great stretches of level lands and val- 

 leys which characterize California; but it often strolls up the canyons, 

 small herds having been seen browsing on the foothills of the southern 

 and central portions of the Reserves. This animal is the swiftest of all 

 game and but for its singular curiosity would be rarely captured. This 

 fatal habit has resulted in its almost complete extermination in Califor- 

 nia. Sportsmen and others steal upon the herds, and by standing on 

 their heads, or waving a limb with a red or white rag, or exhibiting 

 any strange object, they can attract the attention of the timid animal 



