ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 
171 
(Drummond) found no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain Sheep, 
which there exhibited the simplicity of character so remarkable in the 
domestic species ; but that where they had been often fired at, they were 
exceedingly wild, alarmed their companions on the approach of danger by 
a hissing noise, and scaled the rocks with a speed and agility that baffled 
pursuit. He lost several that he had mortally wounded, by their retir- 
ing to die among the secluded precipices.” They are, we are farther in- 
formed on the authority of Drummond, in the habit of pa3dng daily visits to 
certain caves in the mountains that are encrusted with saline efflorescence. 
The same gentleman mentions that the horns of the old rams attain a 
size so enormous, and curve so much forwards and downwards, that they 
effectually prevent the animal from feeding on the level ground. 
All our travellers who have tasted the flesh of the Rocky Mountain 
Sheep, represent it as very delicious when in season, superior to that of 
any species of deer in the west, and even exceeding in flavour the finest 
mutton. 
We have often been surprised that no living specimen of this very in- 
teresting animal has ever been carried to Europe, or any of our Atlantic 
cities, where it would be an object of great interest. 
UEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
This animal is found, according to travellers, as far to the North as lat. 
68, and inhabits the whole chain of the Rocky Mountains on their highest 
peaks down to California. It does not exist at Hudson’s Bay, nor has it 
been found to the eastward of the Rocky Mountain chain 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The history of the early discovery of this species, of specimens transmitted 
to Europe from time to time, obtained in latitudes widely removed from 
each other, of its designation under varinus names, and of the figures some 
of which were very unnatural, that have been given of it, are not only in- 
teresting but full of perplexity. It appears to have been known to Father 
PicoLO, the first Catholic missionary to California, as early as 1697, who 
represents it as large as a calf of one or two years old ; its head much like 
that of a stag, and its horns, which are very large, are like those of a ram ; 
Its tail and hair are speckled and shorter than a stag’s, but its hoof is large 
round, and cleft as an ox’s. I have eaten of these beasts ; their flesh is 
very tender and delicious.” The Californian Sheep is also mentioned by 
ERNANDEZ, Clavigero, and other writers on California. Vanega.s has 
given an imperfect figure of it, which was for a long time regarded as the 
