170 
ROCKY MOUN'I'AIN SHEEP. 
is only one place where wood and pure sweet water can be found in the 
whole range, which is at a spring iiearly in the centre of the tract, and one 
day’s journey from the White river, towards the Chicune. This appears a 
little singular, for if it were not for this the voyageur would be obliged to 
take a circuitous route of from four to five days. This spring is surrounded 
by a grove of ash trees, about two hundred yards in circumference. It 
immediately loses itself in the clay at the edge of the timber, and near 
the spring the road descends about sixty feet and runs through a sort of 
avenue at least half a mile wide, on each side of which are walls of clay 
extending horizontally about fifteen miles, and eighty feet high, for nearly 
the whole distance. Between these walls are small sugar-loaf shaped 
hills, and deep ravines, such as I have already described. The colours of 
the strata are preserved throughout. The principal volcano is the “Cote 
de tonnerre,” from the mouth of which smoke and fire are seen to issue 
nearly at all times. In the neighbourhood and all around, an immense quan- 
tity of pumice stone is deposited, and from the noises to be heard, no doubt 
whatever exists that eruptions may from time to time be expected. There 
is another smaller hill which I saw giving forth heated vapours and smoke, 
but in general if the weather is clear the summits of the Black hills are 
obscured by a mist, from which circumstance many superstitions of the 
Indians have arisen. The highest of the Black hills are fully as high as 
the Alleghany mountains, and their remarkable shapes and singular cha- 
racters deserve the attention of our geologists, especially as it is chiefly 
among these hills that fossil petrefaetions are abundantly met with. 
The Rocky Mountain Sheep are gregarious, and the males fight fiercely 
with each other in the manner of common rams. Their horns are exceed- 
ingly heavy and strong, and some that we have seen have a battered ap- 
pearance, showing that the animal to which they belonged must have but- 
ted against rocks or trees, or probably had fallen from some elevation on to 
the stony surface below. We have heard it said that the Rocky Moun- 
tain Sheep descend the steepest hills head foremost, and they may thus 
come in contact with projecting rocks, or fall from a height on their enor- 
mous horns. 
As is the case with some animals of the deer tribe, the young rams 
of this species and the females herd together during the winter and spring, 
while the old rams form separate flocks, except during the rutting season 
in December. 
In the months of June and July the ewes bring forth, usually one, and 
occasionally, but rarely, two. 
Dr. Richardson, on the authority of Drummond, states that in the retired 
parts of the mountains where the hunters had seldom penetrated, he 
