272 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



are ever met with in the herds of the Rocky Mountain goat ; it is therefore 

 probable that the Californian animals are different from the allied ones, which 

 inhabit the more northern part of the Rocky Mountain ridge. Mr. David Douglas 

 describes Piccolo's sheep Under the name of Ovis Calif arnica *. Pennant, who 

 considers the Asiatic argali (0. ammoii) and the Corsican mufro (0. musimon) to be 

 varieties of the same species, says, in Arctic Zoology, that " the argali is suspected 

 to be found in California, but not on the best authorities." 



On Cook's third voyage he obtained the spoils of an animal on the North-west 

 coast of America, which the editor of the journal takes for granted were those of 

 the argali. They were, doubtless, skins of the Rocky Mountain sheep. Sir 

 Alexander Mackenzie, in his voyage down the great river which bears his name, 

 received an account of the mountain sheep, called by the natives of that district 

 " white buffaloes," and in his subsequent journey across the Rocky Mountains at 

 the sources of the Elk River, he saw some utensils made of their horns, which he 

 not unaptly compares with the horns of the musk-ox. When, in consequence of 

 the important discoveries of that adventurous and intelligent traveller, the English 

 North-west Fur Company were led in the spirit of commercial enterprise to cross 

 the Rocky Mountains twice every year, they became well acquainted with the 

 mountain sheep, and sent several skins of it to Europe, which do not however 

 appear to have fallen into scientific hands, as no account of them was published. 

 The attention of naturalists was drawn to the animal in 1803, by a paper pub- 

 lished in the Medical Repository of New York, by Mr. M'Gillivray, who also 

 presented to the New York Museum a specimen procured by him three years 

 previously on the mountains from whence the Elk River takes its origin. This 

 specimen being afterwards sent to M. Geoffroy, he published a description of it 

 with a figure in the Annales du Museum. Some years afterwards Lewis and 

 Clark brought male and female specimens to Philadelphia, which have lately been 

 figured by Griffith and Godman. Mr. Drummond shot many in the same district 

 in which Mr. M'Gillivray procured his one ; and two specimens obtained on the 

 mountains which skirt the south branch of the Mackenzie, were presented to 

 me by Mr. Macpherson, and are now in the Museum of the Zoological Society. 

 They are male and female, and are the subjects from which the accompanying 

 spirited and very accurate etchings were made by Landseer. 



The Rocky Mountain sheep inhabit the lofty chain of mountains from whence 

 they derive their name from its northern termination in latitude 68° to about 

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



* Zool. Journ. April, 1829. 



