228 
F OREST AND S T R E A M 
In the Land of Little Rain 
Where the Mountain Sheep are, With Protection, Holding Their Own 
By F. H. Ober, Assistant Commissioner, Fish and Game Commission of California. 
I NYO County, Cal., has an area of 10294 
square miles; its surface is largely mountain¬ 
ous, interspersed with large valleys, of 
which the Owens Valley is the largest, being over 
one hundred miles long and about seventeen miles 
wide at Bishop City, and varying in width as one 
goes south from four to ten miles. The Sierras 
here being impassable by wagon, the valley is 
reached from the north or south only, from Cali¬ 
fornia points, with the exception of four fair 
packtrails which lead across the Sierras. 
The altitude of Owens Valley ranges from 
3,620 feet at Keeler, the southern point, to 4,148 
feet at Bishop, in the north; Mount Whitney, the 
highest peak in the United States, is within Inyo’s 
borders, and many slightly less high neighboring 
summits afford scenic views scarcely less grand. 
We also have Death Valley, one of the lowest 
depressions in the world, at one point 430 feet 
below sea level. On each side of this wonderful 
Death Valley mountains rise to an altitude of 
from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, and within its bleak 
wastes desolation reigns supreme; a temperature 
of 120 degrees, and even higher, is not rare here. 
Naturally, in view of the foregoing facts, there 
is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding 
concerning this region, people generally accept¬ 
ing the sole functions of the valley as that of 
Creation’s morgue; but it may be truthfully said 
that almost in its very heart springs of pure cold 
water are to be found, small tracts of land are 
now under cultivation, and more are sure to be¬ 
come so in the years to come. Similar conditions 
exist in the desolate valleys of Pannamint, Sa¬ 
line, Cow Horn and Eureka, these being continua¬ 
tions of Death Valley, lying to the north and 
west, and all being located in Inyo County. 
Writers of note have frequently referred to 
Inyo County as a "sportsman’s paradise,” and 
that the Sierra Nevadas, particularly their front¬ 
age west of the Owens Valley, are, from a scenic 
standpoint, unsurpassed by any portion of the 
globe. 
Mountain sheep are very plentiful in Inyo 
County, especially in the southeastern portion 
where the Nelson or desert sheep makes his 
home; their increase within the past five years 
has been truly wonderful, due to the fact that 
each year has brought forth an abundance of 
rain, with its consequence of plenteous feed in 
the particular habitat where these sheep abound, 
and to the further fact that very little i£ any 
mineral prospecting has been done, which cer¬ 
tainly acts as a disturbance and cause of much 
loss of life to the sheep. 
That which is, perhaps, the largest herd of 
mountain sheep in Inyo County, may be found 
around and near Homestake Canyon, on the 
eastern slope of the White Mountains about 
twenty miles east of Independence. This herd 
numbers upward of one hundred and fifty head, 
but they have been observed, however, in separ¬ 
ate bunches, eventually reuniting. Homestake 
Canyon is their watering place during the sum¬ 
mer months. 
East of Homestake Canyon, and across Saline 
Valley twenty miles to Hot Springs, and around 
Sand Springs and Last Chance Mountain, moun¬ 
tain sheep may be found everywhere; also on 
Ubehebe Mountain, lying east of Saline Valley, 
mountain sheep are very abundant, and south of 
Ubehebe Mountain for one hundred miles; all 
through the Funeral, Argus, Pannamint and 
Slate ranges of mountains, they abound. They 
are most numerous, however, in Inyo County, in 
the above named mountains, and in and around 
“Windgate Pass” and the Sheep Mountain coun¬ 
try, and on the western slope of Tin Mountain 
northeast of Ubehebe Mountain. 
Directly east of Big Pine, about thirty miles, 
there is a very beautiful herd, the writer, on 
several occasions having seen as many as sixty 
at one time, and thirty-eight and forty at others; 
very reliable reports reach me concerning their 
splendid increase each year. 
The Nelson or desert sheep vary in color at 
different seasons, ranging from a pale gray in 
summer to a pale blue in winter. Desert sheep 
frequent the most remote and precipitous and 
barren mountains imaginable, using for their 
shade and resting place the faces of perpendicular 
cliffs. Their food consists chiefly of the tender 
shoots of growing brush and their favorite 
dessert is the most delicate ferns and flowers. 
In the Sierras running through Inyo County 
there are three herds of mountain sheep, and 
these are a distinct and much larger variety than 
the desert sheep. People generally are not aware 
of the existence of these sheep from the fact 
that tourists seldom see them, as they are found 
high up in cloudland and above the localities 
frequented by man. The largest herd known 
in the Sierras can be found northeast of Inde¬ 
pendence and about ten miles away; the writer 
has observed this herd upon many occasions, and 
their number is in the near neighborhood of 
eighty-five to ninety, sixty-five having been 
counted at one time this last winter at the base 
of the mountains touching the valley, and within 
a stone’s throw of an automobile road, thus re¬ 
futing the popular notion that mountain sheep 
do not change their altitude regardless of weather 
conditions. 
The herd next in size may be found about 
twenty-five miles west of Bishop City, on Mount 
Tom, and numbers about fory or fifty head; they 
A Sign of Spring—Young Bear Cubs are Tractable Pets—for awhile. 
