126 SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



does not divide. Sheep managed in this way are said to be better able 

 to take care of themselves, to be less easily frightened by wild animals, 

 to be less worried by the dogs, to trample the feed less, and to come 

 out in quite as good condition at the end of the season. Each system 

 doubtless has its advaiitages. 



The bedding grounds, on which the sheep " bed down," as it is called, 

 at night, are selected on a piece of dry, level, or gently sloping, smooth 

 ground. At dusk the sheep come in, crowding and bleating and rais- 

 ing a cloud of dust. They gradually arrange themselves, and one by 

 one they lie down, close together, and little by little the bleating grows 

 less till they all are silent and asleep. 



At the end of a week, commonly, sometimes two weeks or sometimes 

 only two or three days, the feed within easy range of camp is exhausted 

 and the camp is moved to a new place. This moving of camp continues 

 all summer, some of the bands in suitable situations remaining in one 

 general locality, others making long circuits over a much larger terri- 

 tory. A particular piece of ground is usually grazed over only once, 

 as a second grazing is seldom of any value. If, however, the first graz- 

 ing is suf8.cieatly early in the season, a fresh growth may follow and 

 furnish an excellent second crop. In general, the progress of camps 

 during the season is from the base of the mountains toward their sum- 

 mits, keeping pace with the growth of the vegetation that follows the 

 melting of the sinow. 



LOSS OF SHEEP DURING THE SUMMER. 



Prom various accidental causes a few sheep in a baud are usually 

 lost during the summer, a loss of 1 per cent being common. Occasion- 

 ally larger losses occur. The principal causes of death are bears, 

 wolves, falling rocks, poisonous plants, and lightning. Grizzly bears 

 come at night and usually kill several sheep at a visit. The only wolves 

 of the higher mountains are the large timber wolves. They kill few 

 sheep during the summer, but in the autumn, about the time the sheep 

 are leaving the mountains, they begin to run in packs and are more 

 bold. A late band vi sheep sometimes suffers severe loss from this 

 source. On steep, rocky mountain slopes a sheep is frequently killed 

 by a rolling rock loosened by some sheep grazing on a higher part of 

 the slope. Sheep are sometimes killed by eating water hemlock ( Gieuta 

 vagans), larkspur {Delphinium), rhododendron (Blwdodendron californi- 

 curn), or laurel ( Umbellvlaria californica). The first two are herbaceous 

 plants growing at low elevations on the eastern slope of the Cascades, 

 usually below the timber. In the spring of 1897 about L'OO sheep died 

 in a band that had been grazed in a great patch of larkspur on one of 

 the western spurs of the Tygh Hills, in Wasco County, The other two 

 plants are, respectively, a shrub and a small tree that grow on the 

 humid western slopes in the forests. Rarely a band of sheep, driven to 

 cover in a storm, is struck by lightning with serious results. In July, 

 1896, 168 sheep were killed in this way in a thunder storm on Crane 

 Prairie. The sheep had huddled together for shelter from the rain in a 

 little grove of lodge-pole pines, where they were struck by two successive 

 lightning bolts. 



Formerly large losses were occasioned by the disease known as sheep 

 scab. A State quarantine and inspection law, however, caused a decided 

 decrease in its prevalence, and, finally, anotlier still more powerful 

 factor — the lowering of the price of wool, resulting in a total lack of 

 profits on scabby sheep — has now made the disease almost unknown. 



