THE BIGHORN IN THE SNOW 81 
other times, the summits are bare while the 
lowlands are overburdened with snow. Sheep 
appear quickly to discover and promptly to use 
any advantage afforded by their range. 
One snowy winter an almost famished flock 
of sheep started for the lowlands. Two thou- 
sand feet lower the earth in places lay brown and 
snowless in the sun. Whether this condition 
led the sheep downward, or whether the good 
condition of the lowland was unknown to them 
and they came in desperation, I know not. 
Already weak, they did not get down to timber- 
line the first day. The night was spent against 
a cliff in deep snow. The following morning a 
dead one was left at the foot of the cliff and the 
others struggled on downward, bucking their 
way through the deep snow. 
In snow the strongest one commonly leads. 
Sometimes sheep fight their way through snow 
deeper than their backs. The leading one 
rears on hind legs, extends front feet, leaps up- 
ward and forward, throwing himself with a 
lunge upon the snow. At an enormous cost 
of energy they slowly advance. 
The flock that fought its way downward 
from the heights took advantage of outcropping 
rocks and, down in the woods, of logs which 
nearly lifted them above the snow. Six of the 
eleven who left the heights at last reached shal- 
