THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
In spite of their extraordinary powers of observation wild sheep cannot 
maintain their strongholds against man armed with the modern rifle. 
Mountain sheep are very gregarious and are met with in flocks of from 
five to fifty individuals. During the rutting season even larger gatherings 
— up to 200 — have been found together, and Indians from the Liard have 
told me that they have seen enormous flocks of white sheep in the autumn, 
so that the hills seemed to be covered with them. The Indians themselves 
seldom hunt them, because moose and caribou are plentiful and more 
desirable for skins and meat, and the white man seldom penetrates these 
remote mountains. In times of security the flock is usually led by an old 
ram; but when danger threatens he covers the rear-guard and allows 
an old ewe to lead the flock. During the early autumn the sexes are generally 
found at different elevations and sometimes on adjoining ranges. One may 
find hundreds of ewes and kids and not a ram is to be seen. These wary old 
fellows are hidden away in remote corries full of shifting winds, and do not 
join the main flocks until November, when the snowfall is considerable 
and the mountains are difficult to pass. About the second week in November 
the old rams begin to fight, and the crack of their horns as they meet can 
be heard a long way off. The victor of these fights collects as many ewes 
as he can, usually from six to a dozen, whilst the beaten males wander 
about alone in search of other rams not so powerful as themselves. The 
yearling and two-year-old rams remain on sufferance with the ewes, that 
is to say, it depends much on the temper of the master-ram whether he 
will permit these hangers-on or not. Sometimes the two-year-olds are 
chased away and at other times the master pays little attention to them. 
After the rutting season, sheep of all ages herd together again to pass 
the winter, and remain together until May, when the females wander off 
singly to bring forth their lambs. The males of all deer leave the herd 
as a rule in March, and keep together until horn-growing has properly 
commenced, when two stags, usually an old male and a young one, go off 
together to pass the summer in retreat. The rams of the mountain sheep 
do not as a rule leave the herds till May, and then form flocks of from 
five to twenty, and thus keep together in the most inaccessible places on 
the edge of the snow-line until the autumn. The mountain ewe conceals 
her kid amongst vegetation for the first three or four days, when it comes 
out of its hiding place and joins the mother. She in turn rejoins the main 
flock about a week later, and the young are then quite capable of looking 
after themselves. 
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