MOUNTAIN SPORTS. 
297 
on the basal half of the length of the horn, but much less so on 
he terminal half; and of the three lateral faces the front one is 
the largest. The forms of the female are much more slender 
than those of the male ; they are compressed, nearly straight, and 
without furrows ; there are, in some instances, plates or folds of 
skin under the throat, especially in the male ; the tail is very 
short in both sexes; the color in summer is generally greyish 
fawn, with a reddish or yellowish line down the back, and a large 
patch of the same color on the buttocks ; and the under part, and 
the insides of the legs, are either russet, yellowish, or of a white 
sand color ; in winter the color of the upper part is more reddish, 
and the throat and breast are more inclining to white; but the 
patch on the buttocks remains much the same at all seasons.’’ 
In addition to this, I have only to indicate that the description 
of the Argali, Ovis Ammon , of Northern Asia, under the above 
head, on the 354th page. 1st volume of the Encyclopedia Ameri¬ 
cana , to which I refer my more curious and investigating readers, 
agrees so exactly with the foregoing as to leave no possible doubt 
on my mind of the identity of the North Asiatic and North 
American species. 
I conceive that the Rocky Mountain Goat and Sheep are 
rarely objects of particular systematic pursuit, and that when 
killed at all, it is most by accident, during the winter season, 
the snows of which are said to drive them down into the val¬ 
leys 
While among the herbless crags and awful precipices of those 
dread mountain solitudes which it inhabits, and among which 
it bounds fearless and sublime, where man can only creep 
and cling, it is out of the nature of things that it can be cap¬ 
tured easily. It is not easy to see it, in the first place ; and 
when seen, to outclimb and circumvent it, must require that the 
hunter should be every inch a man. 
With regard to stalking these animals—of course there is no 
other way of approaching them—I have but one or two remarks 
to make, which I have deferred to this place, rather than con- 
