1841.] A Monograph of the species of Wild Sheep. 865 



whence it would appear that the Rocky Mountain species, or a 

 near ally, is here alluded to. Mr. Douglas describes the Califor- 

 nian Argali to have a tail 18 inches long (vide Zoological Journal, 

 vol. iv. p. 332.) Its length, he observes, from nose to base of tail, 



In Asia, the Argali is described by Pallas to affect the bare rocks, upon which it is 

 constantly found basking in the sunshine; preferring a temperate climate, though its 

 range extends northward to a very severe one. No animal is more shy, and it gradu- 

 ally abandons a country in proportion as it becomes peopled. It is almost impossible 

 to overtake it upon the ground which it chiefly frequents, as it retreats upon the least 

 alarm in the direction of the most inaccessible ci-ags, scrambling up and over the 

 rocks with surprising agility, but ever and anon stopping to gaze at its pursuers, and 

 successively veering from side to side as it runs, in the same manner as the domestic 

 animal. The adults are quite untameable, but the lamb becomes perfectly domesti- 

 cated if taken young. In autumn, when these animals descend from the mountains, 

 they are fat and in high condition, but in spring they are very lean, for want of choice 

 food, when they return to the sunny glens of the high mountains. Their lambs, one 

 or two in number, are born before the melting of the snow ; and the males butt at 

 each other for the possession of the females in precisely the same manner as the domes- 

 tic i-am. 



The flesh of the Argali is pronounced by all who have tasted it, when in season, to 

 be equal, if not superior, in flavour to the finest English mutton ; and the same is 

 remarked of other wild species of this genus ; though, when out of season, they would 

 appear to be tough and of rank flavour, on which principle may be reconciled a 

 variety of conflicting testimonies. 



The Argali formerly inhabited the country about the river Irktisch, as well as 

 other parts of Siberia, where it is now no longer met with, since colonies have been 

 planted in those dreary regions : at present it is chiefly known to abound in the terri- 

 tory to the eastward of Lake Baikal, extending northward on the banks of the Lena to 

 lat. 60°. Its identification to the southward, upon the eastern Himalayas, and conse- 

 quent presumed diffusion over the intervening mountain ranges, between the great 

 sandy deserts on the west and the frontiers of China, is therefore not improbable. In 

 America, its most closely allied representative, if it be not the very same species, is 

 confined to the western side of the Rocky Mountains, as in Asia it inhabits the op- 

 posite eastern region ; being found, according to Dr. Richardson, upon the lofty chain 

 of the Rocky Mountains, inhabiting from its northern termination in lat. 68° to about 

 lat. 40°, and most likely still further south. They also frequent the elevated and 

 craggy ridges with which the country between the great mountain ridge and the 

 Pacific is intersected ; but they do not appear to have advanced further to the eastward 

 than the Rocky Mountains, nor are they found in any of the hilly tracts nearer to 

 Hudson's Bay, (Fauna Americana-borealis.) More recently, the same naturalist 

 writes (in the Zoological Appendix to Capt. Beechy's Voyage) — "This species inhabits 

 the timbered parts of the Rocky Mountains, and the hilly countries between that range 

 and the Pacific, from North California to the 62d parallel." He there expresses his 

 opinion that the Kamtschatka species, as described by Eschscholtz, "appears distinct;" 

 and it may be that the two are found together in the territories of the Tungusi, 

 as the Californian species would appear to coexist with the ordinary American Argali 

 in the regions adjacent to the Columbia river: these latter are doubtless frequently 

 confounded together. — E. B. 



