32 
WILD SHEEP. 
incur, since the flesh of the wild sheep affords them 
a wholesome and nourishing food, while the skin 
serves them for a warm winter clothing. To ob- 
tain these essential necessaries of life, there is no 
labour which the Kamtschatkans will not undergo : 
they abandon their habitations with all their family 
in the spring, and continue the whole summer in 
the employ, amidst the rude mountains ; fearless of 
the dreadful precipices, or of the overwhelming 
masses of snow, which rolling from the heights, and 
collecting as they fall, sometimes bury the sports- 
man and his family in one common ruin. 
As soon as these creatures perceive a man, they 
ascend to the highest ground they can find ; and to 
accomplish their purpose they will tread the nar- 
rowest paths, over the most dangerous places, with 
surprising agility. To follow them, as we have al- 
ready observed, is both dangerous and difficult, and 
to approach near enough to shoot them requires the 
utmost stratagem. The rams are very quarrelsome 
animals, and fight with great fury. In these com- 
bats it frequently happens that one of them is pushed 
down a precipice, and sometimes both fall together 
entangled by the horns : in this state their remains 
are often found at the bottom ; a convincing proof 
of their fatal quarrels. 
The argali produce their young about the middle 
of March ; and when the lambs are first born they 
are covered with a soft, gray, curling fleece, which 
as the season advances gradually changes, and be- 
comes hair by the end of autumn. As the winter 
