Terms, Five Dollars a Year. ) 
Ten Cents a Copy. f 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1874. 
j Volume 2, Numbers 5 
1 IT Chatham St. (CityHall Sqr.) 
For Forest and Stream. 
WHEN MY SHIP COMES HOME. 
A YOUNG man stood by the summer sea.. 
In the flush of the rising sun, 
And the wavelets gleamed as the light down streamed, 
Gilding them one by one. 
Over the waves with the tips of gold, 
At the sun and the shining sea, 
Like an eagle he gazed, with eye undazed, 
And a soul all young and free. 
“Youth and the world are mine!” he cried, 
“Honor and hope and love; 
Calm as the sea is my life to me, 
And bright as the skies above. 
“And the blue-eyed lass with the golden hair, 
Who has given her heart to me; 
Ah! she will be mine with her love divine, 
When my ship comes over the sea.” 
An old man stood on a barren beach, 
Shading his haggard eyes 
With a hand that shook,-while his weary look 
Went from earth to sea and skies. 
And never a one to pity him 
Of ali the friends of his youth, 
For Hope was dead, and there lived instead 
The sinister lesson, Truth. 
And the gold-haired lass that had looked on him 
With her eyes of heavenly blue, 
Had gone, with his fame and riches and name, 
As blue-eyed goddesses do. 
Haggard and broken his shadow fell 
Clouding the laughing foam; 
Wrecked in the strife and storm ofilife, 
His ship had never come home! J. J. Roche. 
lor th= Western 
Territories. 
THE OVID.® OF THE NORTH-WEST. 
T^HE wild ovidse of the continent of North America are 
confined to the Rocky Mountains and the region which 
extends westward from them to the Pacific Ocean, and even 
here they are comparatively scarce when contrasted with 
other animals which require more fostering care from nature 
to allow them to increase and become abundant. The 
species found in the north-west are limited to two, and they 
aie > as a general rule, found among the crags, deep canyons 
and elevated mesas of mountains; it being a very rare oc- 
cuirence to find any at a lower altitude than from three to 
ve thousand feet. The variety most common is the Rocky 
ountain sheep, (Ovis montana,) and that is found from 
yoming to the California line, though it is more abund¬ 
ant in the northern territories than in the southern. It 
seems to be more common in the Klamath Basin, between 
a i orma and Oregon, and the Blue Mountains traversing 
a o, Washington Territory and Oregon, than in any 
. e i poi ’^ on the Pacific Coast. It is but little hunted, 
wing to the difficulty of approaching it, for its vigilance 
and also the hard labor of taking it away if 
reo CC ’ f ° r n011e tlle e( I ulne species can be taken into the 
Itsf 0DS ^ e fi uen ted by this nimble and sure-footed animal. 
habitat is the open, steep and rocky knolls and 
luxir' 6 1 cia ^= s w ^ iere th e delicate herbage it loves grows 
and and ^ rom this cause it requires much patience 
itnWi &eV i eiaUCe m a hunter t0 follow it to a death shot, 
clifflpnn 1 * S ou ^ happen to steal upon it unawares—a feat 
ucult to accomplish. 
Wcst°dn° Ver l Wenty P erlia P a have been killed in the north- 
that tli UDg the PaSt two years > ^withstanding the fact 
their flZ areVery common in . certain localities, and that 
season + 1S n Said t0 be very palatable, superior in certain 
whom it’°i tllat ° f the doraestic sheep. The Indians, to 
equal . ls kuown lV the name of 7iyas mooto, consider it 
in Qufwt^r meat the y can Procure; yet, they will • not go 
latter if 0t 11 Wl ! lle smaU game is so abundant, for th 
i not equal in flavor to the mutton, still in thpir 
es¬ 
timation, accomplishes the purpose of appeasing hunger 
equally well; therefore, they think it idle labor to satisfy 
an epicurean palate at the expense and toil of the whole 
body. When the noble siwash is confined to a reservation 
for a few years he becomes sybaritical and loses ali love for 
even the chase, and this is probably the cause why he does 
not seek the lair of the American chamois and bring home 
the occupant as a proof of his perseverance and manhood. 
The few sheep killed are generally shot by the sporting pale 
face, for he will work night and day to enjoy the proud 
satisfaction of overcoming all obstacles and slaying an ani¬ 
mal said to be the most vigilant on the continent. The 
best place that I have yet seen for hunting this sheep is 
near the Cascades of the Columbia Mountains. Small herds 
are found early in the morning and late in the evening, but 
in the middle of the day, few, if any, can be seen, as they 
secrete themselves among the rocks. It is stated that when 
feeding they will appoint one, generally a vigilant male, to 
mount guard on some elevated knoll, and when he sees any 
strange object approaching he sounds an alarm and all 
scamper off to the more elevated ridges at their best speed. 
When only one or two band together they also keep watch, 
and like the antelope, will raise their heads every few min¬ 
utes to survey the landscape. Like all wild animals keen 
of scent, they will detect a man’s presence half a mile off, 
should the wind blow from his direction; hence, if a shot 
is desired, one must always keep on tffirir lee and approach 
them slowly and cautiously or thev^^ l( . me alarmed and fly 
at the first glimpse of the inp* , ' r ~‘ ^jqcild their retreat to 
the mountain peaks be cufbff, they - ^ not i les j^ a t; e a mo . 
ment to leap from a crag and into a ^jy gs b e ] ow —one ap¬ 
parently deep enough to causSfiv^f-j ofyne in their body to 
be shattered; yet, old hunters declare $hat they never saw 
one injured from the plunge, no matter how great. The 
cause for this immunity from danger is attributed to the 
horns, on which they alight, they being- deemed to have the 
power of elasticity; hence, when a sheep falls on them, 
they cause it to rebound to its feet immediately and none 
the worse for the concussion. These useful appendages are 
also said to be employed for climbing bowlders and all steep 
ascents. When the animal finds that it cannot secure a 
foothold it will, it is so stated by Nimrods, place the points 
of its curved horns in the earth or crevice of rock and hang 
by them until it can plant itself firmly preparatory to a 
further advance. The horns are certainly strong enough to 
hold many times the weight of the creature bearing them, 
and their blunted and broken tips would add to the proba¬ 
bility of the tale. 
The appearance and characteristics of this species of the 
ovidee are very different from those,of the domestic; in 
fact, were it not for the outlines of the face, one would 
rather classify it with the capridse, or goat family. It is 
much taller and longer than the largest of the domestic 
variety, the cauda is shorter, the neck thicker, and instead 
of wool it has coarse tubular hair of a yellowish brown 
color, which changes to a white nuchal patch at the flanks, 
bifurcating behind. A narrow streak of white decks the 
posterior side of the fore and hind legs, while the anterior 
is of the same hue as the body. The horns, which are very 
heavy at the base and close together, curve backward and 
forward and terminate at a small point. They are placed 
directly over the eyes and this gives the head a stunted ap¬ 
pearance. The face is rather narrow, the eyes are large 
and full, the nostrils are very broad, the neck is short and 
stout, intended undoubtedly for the large horns which it 
bears; while the legs are long and tapering and strongly in¬ 
dicative of sinew and speed. The body is round and quite 
broad, and so far as graceful outline is concerned, is far 
superior to that of the domestic species. Unlike the latter, 
also, its congener will fight any ordinary foe, and make a 
brave struggle against wolf or fox in defence of its young. 
In these contests the heavy horns are used with terrible 
power on the ribs of the conscienceless carnivora, and he is 
often compelled to retreat without having accomplished 
anything than receiving a sound pummeling. This animal 
brings forth its young in May or early in June, the number 
varying from one to two, but the former is the average. 
The lambkins are well able to look after their provender in 
a couple of weeks after seeing the sunlight; yet, the mother 
will remain with them from three to six months, according 
to locality and possibility of escape from dogs and hunters. 
To give our readers an idea of the mountain sheep I made 
the following measurement of one recently captured:— 
Length from base of horns to cauda, 44 inches; height, 
34 inches; horns along curve, 29 inches; horns width from 
tip to tip, 26 inches; face from horns to tip of nose, 10 
inches. 
The cauda, which was not more than an inch in length, 
had an upward curve, and its hirsute covering was a sort of 
yellowish-wiiite. The animal was a model of speed and 
strength, but it seemed devoid of much intelligence; it 
certainly had none of that gravity so peculiar to the male 
of the domestic ovus. 
The only animal allied to this found in the north-west is 
the Rocky Mountain goat, {aplocerus montana ,) and that I 
have classified in the opening of this article as belonging to, 
or rather being allied to the ovidae; so to be literal now I 
shall refer to it as the capridse. This active climber and 
daring leaper is said to inhabit the Cascade range from the 
northern portion of California to British Columbia, and to 
follow the more elevated ridges from the Rocky Mountains 
to Southern Idaho. Very little is known of its habits, as 
its Alpine resort protects it from the rifle of the hunter and 
the attack of carnivorous scientists. My knowledge of it is 
confined to descriptions received from Indians and one or 
two hunters; and as their imagination is always vivid, I 
hardly know whether to believe what I have heard or not. 
Some tales of course are apocryphal, especially those of the 
pale faces, as for instance, that one among many, where 
they aver that a goat will leap down a precipice of 1,000 
feet, strike on a rock on its horns, rebound to its feet, then 
leap to another, and so continue its jumping until it reaches 
a place of safety! 
Another anecdote is that a goat will die by suicide rather 
than allow itself to be shot by man; and also that when it 
reaches a place of safety no amount of shooting, or yelling 
will frighten it away, as it then apparently knows that it is 
secure from all danger, so bids defiance to empty fusilades. 
It is, according to tales, more cunning and daring than the 
Alpine chamois, and also better for the table, as it finds an 
abundance of herbage at all seasons; in the summer among 
the crags near the snow line; in the winter among the con¬ 
iferous forests, which extend to the line of perpetual snow. 
The Indians of Walla Walla, to whom this animal is known 
as the wow, state that it is entirely white, has long pendant 
hair and a large tuft or beard on the chin. The land which 
it frequented when known to them is now trodden by herds 
of domestic cattle, and that like all other animals in a state 
of nature, has been compelled to flee before civilization. 
Those tourists who flock to Europe to loiter away tlieir 
time chamois hunting, could do much better by staying at 
home, especially, if fond of field sports, for they can find in 
the north-west animals which are unknown to science, or 
at most but very little; and to make the world acquainted 
with these should certainly prove interesting to those who 
have knowledge sufficient and the leisure to prosecute such 
inquiries. They would then accomplish two useful purposes 
—namely, secure bounding health and vigorous pleasure 
for themselves, and furnish to the world a species of infor¬ 
mation concerning the strange animals of this continent 
which it would gladly know. I think that if your influen¬ 
tial journal were to call the attention of tourists to the 
broad field open to them throughout the north-west, many 
secrets of the habits and characteristics of its flora and 
fauna would be made known and science thereby enriched. 
It is my intention in a week or two to start on a hunt among 
these nimble-footed creatures, the goats and sheep; and if I 
am fortunate enough to get within watching distance of 
them, I shall furnish you notes of my experience. 
Mortimer Kerry. 
*-- 
—Put on your right glove first, stupid. Then you have 
your left hand ungloved to button your right withal. If 
you put on your left glove first you have to button your 
right glove under double disadvantage. * 
