2 
THE WILD SHEEP OF THE SIERRA. 
The wool is always white, and grows in ! 
beautiful spirals down out of sight among | 
the straight, shining hair, like delicate [ 
clin>l:)ing vines among stalks of corn. 
The hon)s of the male are of immense 
size, measuring in their greater diameter 
from five to six and a half inches, and from 
two and a half to three feet in length around 
the curve. They are yellowish-white in 
color, and ridged transversely, like those of 
the domestic ram. Their cross-section near 
the base is somewhat triangular in outline, 
and flattened over toward the tip. In rising 
Ram. Ewe. 
ft. in. ft. in. 
Height at shoulders 3 6 3 o 
Girth around shoulders 3 11 3 3|^ 
Length from nose to root of tail, . 5 xo)^ 4 3^^ 
Length of ears o 4^4^ o 5 
Length of tail o 4^^ o 4^ 
Length of horns around curve. ... 2 9 o 
Distance across from tip to tip of 
horns 2 5^ 
Circumference of horns at base. .14 06 
The measurements of a male obtained in 
I the Rocky Mountains by Audubon vary but 
I little as compared with the above. 
SNOW-BOLND UN MOUNT SHASTA. 
from the head, they curve gently backward 
and outward, then forward and outward, 
until about three-fourths of a circle is de- 
scribed, and until the flattened, blunt tips 
are about two feet apart. Those of the 
female are flattened throughout their entire 
length, less curved than those of the male, 
and much smaller, measuring less than a 
foot along the curve. 
A ram and ewe that I obtained near the 
Modoc lata-beds, to the north-east of 
Mount Shasta, measured as follows : 
The weight of his specimen was three 
hundred and forty-four pounds,* which is, 
perhaps, about an average for full-grown 
males. The females are about a third 
lighter. 
Besides these differences in size, color, 
clothing, etc., as noted above, we may 
observe that the domestic sheep, in a gen- 
eral way, is expressionless, like a dull bundle 
* Audubon and Bachman's "Quadrupeds of North 
America." 
