114 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
HORNS OF ASIATIC AND AMERICAN MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 
1. Siberian Argali. No. 1 in list on page 112. 
2. Marco Polo’s Sheep. A specimen of medium length, only. 
3. Big-Horn. No. 4 in list. A very large pair. 
4. White Sheep. No. 5 in list ; of unusual length. 
sheep; black sheep; Big-Horn; Nelson’s and 
Mexican sheep. 
It requires no stretch of the imagination to 
behold Bering Strait choked with the great polar 
ice-pack, and hardy, strong-limbed bears, wolves, 
mountain sheep and reindeer crossing over the 
sixty miles that now separate Asia from Alaska, 
and spreading in all directions over North Amer- 
ica. I fully believe that the parent stock of our 
mountain sheep, caribou, moose, wolves and 
bears came from Asia by this route. 
The Rocky Mountain Goat, or White Goat , 1 
1 O-re am'nos mon-tan’ us. 
is the only American represent- 
ative of the numerous species 
of wild goats, ibexes and other 
goat-like animals so numerous 
throughout the Old World 
from Japan to India, southern 
Europe and northern Africa. 
Thus far with but one excep- 
tion all the rumors of “ibex” 
thathave come from Wyoming, 
Colorado, Montana and Brit- 
ish Columbia have proven en- 
tirely without foundation. In 
one case a Colorado hunter 
discovered a small band of 
once-tame goats running wild 
and reported it to Recreation 
magazine, with a photograph 
of a mounted specimen. While 
it is possible that a genuine 
Capra may yet be found 
inhabiting some unexplored 
region, like the Romanzoff 
Mountains, such an occur- 
rence is very improbable. 
The only use or value thus 
far found in the Mountain 
Goat is as “game” for sports- 
men who like difficult and 
dangerous tasks. With but 
few exceptions, it inhabits 
the grassy belt of the high 
mountains just above tim- 
ber-line, and it particularly 
loves the dangerous ice-cov- 
ered slopes and “hog-backs” 
over which only the boldest 
hunters dare follow it. This, 
however, specially applies to its haunts in the 
Rocky Mountains, and the Coast Range. On 
the coast of British Columbia, the White Goat 
sometimes descends so near to tide water that 
more than one specimen has been shot from a 
canoe. 
For a large Ungulate, the Mountain Goat is 
said to be phenomenally stupid. It is quite true 
that any hunter who has the nerve and strength 
to climb to where it lives will there find no great 
difficulty in killing it. From all accounts, it is 
both erratic and stupid. Several times goats 
have approached the camp-fires of explorers, and 
