128 THE WILD FOWL AND GAME ANIMALS OF ALASKA 



caught sight of them. At such times the Indian, knowing the 

 country and the habits of the game, would run at his best speed 

 to the opposite side of the small basin or valley and take a posi- 

 tion where he could see for some distance on all sides, for when 

 started in this manner the moose often made a wide circuit and 

 returned within tmnshot. 



ball's mountain sheep 



Two species of mountain sheep , quite different from one another 

 and from the Rocky Mountain bighorn, are known in northwestern 

 America. The first of these, a superb, snow-white animal, was 

 described by the writer. some years ago as Ovis dalli, in honor of 

 Prof. Wm. H. Dall, the pioneer scientific explorer on the Yukon. 

 The specimens upon which my description was based were ob- 

 tained from the Fort Reliance country by Mr L. N. McQuesten, 

 now President of the Order of Yukon Pioneers. Dall's moun- 

 tain sheep is found over a wide area, from the low hills beyond 

 the tree limit near the Arctic coast south across the Yukon and 

 Kuskokwim to the Alaskan range. Last year Dr J. A. Allen de- 

 scribed another species from the headwaters of the Stikine river 

 and named it Ovis.stonei. But little is known of this handsome 

 animal, which has a dark, almost iron-gray, coat, very different 

 from the white of Dall's sheep. The discovery of these two sheep 

 in northwestern America indicates that we may expect other in- 

 teresting, if less striking, new forms of animal life in the moun- 

 tains of that region. 



