San Pedro Martir Mountains has been slight. Mr. Gould's admirable
account of a hunting trip for them--"To the Gulf of Cortez," published
in a preceding volume of the Club's book--will be remembered, and the
curious fact stated by his Indian guide that the sheep break holes in
the hard, prickly rinds of the venaga cactus with their horns, and then
eat out the inside.
Recently, however, a series of thirteen specimens collected by Edmund
Heller were received by Dr. D.G. Elliot, and described, as already
stated, and he gives from Mr. Heller's note-book the following notes on
their habits:
"Common about the cliffs, coming down occasionally to the water holes in
the valley. Most of the sheep observed were either solitary or in small
bands of three to a dozen. Only one adult ram was seen, all the others,
about thirty, being either ewes or lambs. The largest bunch seen
consisted of eleven, mostly ewes and a few young rams." The sheep, as a
rule, inhabit the middle line of cliffs where they are safe from attack
above and can watch the valley below for danger. Here about the middle
line of cliffs they were observed, and the greater number of tracks and
dust wallows, where they spend much of their time, were seen. A few were
seen on the level stretches of the mesas, and a considerable number of
tracks, but these were made by those traveling from one line of cliffs
to another.
"They are constantly on guard, and very little of their time is given to
browsing. Their usual method is to feed about some high cliffs or rocks,
taking an occasional mouthful of brush, and then suddenly throwing up
the head and gazing and listening for a long time before again taking
food. They are not alarmed by scent, like deer or antelope, the
direction of the wind apparently making no difference in hunting them. A
small bunch of six were observed for a considerable time feeding. Their
method seemed to be much the same as individuals, except that when
danger was suspected by any member, he would give a few quick leaps, and
all the flock would scamper to some high rock and face about in various
directions, no two looking the same way. These maneuvers were often
performed, perhaps once every fifteen minutes.
"Their chief enemy is the mountain lion, which hunts them on the cliffs,
apparently never about watering places. Lion tracks were not rare about
the sheep runs. They are extremely wary about coming down for water, and
take every precaution. Before leaving the cliffs to cross the valley to
water they usually select some high ridge and descend along this, gazing
constantly at the spring, usually halting ten or more minutes on every
prominent rocky point. When within a hundred yards or less of the water,
a long careful search is made, and a great deal of ear-work performed,
the head being turned first to one side and then to the other. When they
do at last satisfy themselves, they make a bolt and drink quickly,
stopping occasionally to listen and look for danger.
"If, however, they should be surprised at the water they do not flee at
once, but gaze for some time at the intruder, and then go a short way
and take another look, and so on until at last they break into a steady
run for the cliffs. At least thirty sheep were observed at the water,
and none came before 9:30 A.M. or later than 2:30 P.M., most coming down
between 12:00 M. and 1:00 P.M. This habit has probably been established
to avoid lions, which are seldom about during the hottest part of the
day. A few ewes were seen with two lambs, but the greater number had
only one. Most of the young appeared about two months old. Their usual
gait was a short gallop, seldom a walk or trot."
The great curving horns of the wild sheep have always exercised more or
less influence on people's imagination, and have given rise to various
fables. These horns are large in proportion to the animal, and so
peculiar that it has seemed necessary to account for them on the theory
that they had some marvelous purpose. The familiar tale that the horns
of the males were used as cushions on which the animal alighted when
leaping down from great heights is old. A more modern hypothesis which
promises to be much shorter lived is that advanced a year or two ago by
Mr. Geo. Wherry, of Cambridge, England, who suggested that "The form of
the horn and position of the ear enables the wild sheep to determine the
direction of sound when there is a mist or fog, the horn acting like an
admiralty megaphone when used as an ear trumpet, or like the topophone
(double ear trumpet, the bells of which turn opposite ways) used for a
fog-bound ship on British-American vessels to determine the direction of
sound signals."
It is, of course, well understood, and, on the publication of
Mr. Wherry's hypothesis, was at once suggested, that there are many
species of wild sheep, and that the spiral of the horn of each species
is a different one. Moreover, within each species there are of course
different ages, and the spiral may differ with age and also at the same
age to some extent with the individual. In some cases, the ear perhaps
lies at the apex of a cone formed by the horn, but in others it does not
lie there. Moreover this hypothesis, like the other and older one, in
which the horns were said to act as the jumping cushion, takes no
account of the females and young, which in mists, fogs, and at other
times, need protection quite as much as the adult males. The old males
with large and perfect horns have to a large extent fulfilled the
function of their lives--reproduction--and their place is shortly to be
taken by younger animals growing up. Moreover they have reached the full
measure of strength and agility, and through years of experience have
come to a full knowledge of the many dangers to which their race is
exposed. It would seem extraordinary that nature should have cared so
well for them, and should have left the more defenseless females and
young unprotected from the dangers likely to come to them from enemies
which may make sounds in a fog.
The old males with large and perfect horns have come to their full
fighting powers, and do fight fiercely at certain seasons of the
year. And it is believed by many people that the great development of
horns among the mountain sheep is merely a secondary sexual character
analogous to the antlers of the deer or the spurs of the cock.
Most people who have hunted sheep much will believe that this species
depends for its safety chiefly on its nose and its eyes. And if the
observations of hunters in general could be gathered and collated, they
would probably agree that the female sheep are rather quicker to notice
danger than the males, though both are quick enough.
PROTECTION.
It is gratifying to note that the rapid disappearance of the mountain
sheep has made some impression on legislators in certain States where it
is native. Some of these have laws absolutely forbidding the killing of
mountain sheep; and while in certain places in all of such States and
Territories this law is perhaps lightly regarded, and not generally
observed, still, on the whole, its effect must be good, and we may hope
that gradually it will find general observance. The mountain sheep is so
superb an animal that it should be a matter of pride with every State
which has a stock of sheep within its borders to preserve that stock
most scrupulously. It is said that in Colorado, where sheep have long
been protected, they are noticeably increasing, and growing tamer. I
have been told of one stock and mining camp, near Silver Plume, where
there is a bunch of sheep absolutely protected by public sentiment, in
which the miners, and in fact the whole community, take great pride and
delight.
It is fitting that on the statute books the mountain sheep should have
better protection than most species of our large game, since there is no
other species now existing in any numbers which is more exposed to
danger of extinction. Destroyed on its old ranges, it is found now only
in the roughest mountains, the bad lands, and the desert, and it is
sufficiently desirable as a trophy to be ardently pursued wherever
found.
Several States have been wise enough absolutely to protect sheep; these
are North Dakota, California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado (until 1907),
Utah, New Mexico (until March 1, 1905), and Texas (until July,
1908). Three other States, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho, permit one
mountain sheep to be killed by the hunter during the open season of each
year. Oregon, which has a long season, from July 15 to November 1, puts
no limit on the number to be killed, while in Nevada there appears to be
no protection for the species.
If these protective laws were enforced, sheep would increase, and once
more become delightful objects of the landscape, as they have in
portions of Colorado and in the National Park, where, as already stated,
they are so tame during certain seasons of the year that they will
hardly get out of the way. On the other hand, in many localities covered
by excellent laws, there are no means of enforcing them. Montana, which
perhaps has as many sheep as any State in the Union, does not, and
perhaps cannot, enforce her law, the sheep living in sections distant
from the localities where game wardens are found, and so difficult to
watch. In some cases where forest rangers are appointed game wardens,
they are without funds for the transportation of themselves and
prisoners over the one hundred or two hundred miles between the place of
arrest and the nearest Justice of the Peace, and cannot themselves be
expected to pay these expenses. In the summer of 1903 sheep were killed
in violation of law in the mountains of Montana, and also in the bad
lands of the Missouri River.
On the other hand, in Colorado there are many places where the law
protecting the sheep is absolutely observed. Public opinion supports the
law, and those disposed to violate it dare not do so for fear of the
law. Near Silver Plume, already mentioned, a drive to see the wild sheep
come down to water is one of the regular sights offered to visitors, and
while there may be localities where sheep are killed in violation of the
law in Colorado, it is certain that there are many where the law is
respected.
There are still a few places where sheep may be found to-day, living
somewhat as they used to live before the white men came into the western
country. Such places are the extremely rough bad lands of the Missouri
River, between the Little Rocky Mountains and the mouth of Milk River,
where, on account of the absence of water on the upper prairie and the
small areas of the bottoms of the Missouri River, there are as yet few
settlements. The bad lands are high and rough, scarcely to be traversed
except by a man on foot, and in their fastnesses the sheep--protected
formally by State law, but actually by the rugged country--are still
holding their own. They come down to the river at night to water, and
returning spend the day feeding on the uplands of the prairie, and
resting in beds pawed out of the dry earth of the washed bad lands, just
as their ancestors did.
In old times this country abounded in buffalo, elk, deer of two species,
sheep, and antelope, and if set aside as a State park by Montana, it
would offer an admirable game refuge, and one still stocked with all its
old-time animals, except the elk and the buffalo.
* * * * *
RANGE.
The present range of the different forms of mountain sheep extends from
Alaska and from the Pacific Ocean east to the Rocky Mountains--with a
tongue extending down the Missouri River as far as the Little
Missouri--south to Sonora and Lower California. The various forms from
north to south appear to be Dall's sheep, the saddleback sheep, Stone's
sheep, the common bighorn, with the Missouri River variety, existing to
the east, in the bad lands, and with Nelson's, the Mexican and the Lower
California sheep running southward into Mexico.
Among the experienced hunters of both forms of Dall's sheep are
Messrs. Dali DeWeese, of Colorado, and A.J. Stone, Collector of Arctic
Mammals for the American Museum of Natural History. Mr. Stone gives two
distinct ranges for this sheep, (1) the Alaska Mountains and Kenai
Peninsula, and (2) the entire stretch of the Rocky Mountains north of
latitude 60 degrees to near the Arctic coast just at the McKenzie,
reaching thence west to the headwaters of the Noatak and Kowak rivers
that flow into Kotzebue Sound.
Stone's sheep, which was described by Dr. Allen in 1897, came from the
head of the Stickine River, and two years after its description Dr. J.A.
Allen quotes Mr. A.J. Stone, the collector, as saying: "I traced the
_Ovis stonei_, or black sheep, throughout the mountainous country
of the headwaters of the Stickine, and south to the headwaters of the
Nass, but could find no reliable information of their occurrence further
south in this longitude. They are found throughout the Cassiar
Mountains, which extend north to 61 degrees north latitude and west to
134 degrees west longitude. How much further west they may be found I
have been unable to determine. Nor could I ascertain whether their range
extends from the Cassiar Mountains into the Rocky Mountains to the north
of Francis and Liard River. But the best information obtained led me to
believe that it does not. They are found in the Rocky Mountains to the
south as far as the headwaters of the Nelson and Peace rivers in
latitude 56 degrees, but I proved conclusively that in the main range of
the Rocky Mountains very few of them are found north of the Liard
River. Where this river sweeps south through the Rocky Mountains to
Hell's Gate, a few of these animals are founds as far north as Beaver
River, a tributary of the Liard. None, however, are found north of this,
and I am thoroughly convinced that this is the only place where these
animals may be found north of the Liard River.
"I find that in the Cassiar Mountains and in the Rocky Mountains they
everywhere range above timber line, as they do in the mountains of
Stickine, the Cheonees, and the Etsezas.
"Directly to the north of the Beaver River, and north of the Liard River
below the confluence of the Beaver, we first meet with _Ovis
dalli_."
A Stony Indian once told me that in his country--the main range of the
Rocky Mountains--there were two sorts of sheep, one small, dark in
color, and with slender horns, which are seldom broken, and another sort
larger and pale in color, with heavy, thick horns that are often broken
at the point. He went on to say that these small black sheep are all
found north of Bow River, Alberta, and that on the south side of Bow
River the big sheep only occur. The country referred to all lies on the
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. The hunting ground of the Stonies
runs as far north as Peace River, and it is hardly to be doubted that
they know Stone's sheep. The Brewster Bros., of Banff, Alberta, inform
me that Stone's sheep is found on the head of Peace River.
A dozen or fifteen years ago one of the greatest sheep ranges that was
at all accessible was in the mountains at the head of the Ashnola River,
in British Columbia, and on the head of the Methow, which rises in the
same mountains and flows south into Washington. This is a country very
rough and without roads, only to be traversed with a pack train.
Mr. Lew Wilmot writes me that there are still quite a number of sheep
ranging from Mt. Chapacca, up through the Ashnola, and on the
headwaters of the Methow. Indeed, it is thought by some that sheep are
more numerous there now than they were a few years ago. In Dyche's
"Campfires of a Naturalist" a record is given of sheep in the Palmer
Lake region, at the east base of the Cascade range in Washington.
The Rev. John McDougall, of Morley, Alberta, wrote me in 1899, in answer
to inquiries as to the mountain sheep inhabiting the country ranged over
by the Stony Indians, "that it is the opinion of these Indians that the
sheep which frequent the mountains from Montana northward as far as our
Indians hunt, are all of one kind, but that in localities they differ in
size, and somewhat in color.
"They say that from the 49th parallel to the headwaters of the
Saskatchewan River, sheep are larger than those in the Selkirks and
coast ranges; and also that as they go north of the Saskatchewan the
sheep become smaller. As to color, they say that the more southerly and
western sheep are the lighter; and that as you pass north the sheep are
darker in color. These Stonies report mountain sheep as still to be
found in all of the mountain country they roam in. Their hunting ground
is about 400 miles long by 150 broad, and is principally confined to the
Rocky Mountain range."
In an effort to establish something of the range of the mountain sheep,
during the very last years of the nineteenth century, I communicated
with a large number of gentlemen who were either resident in, or
travelers through, portions of the West now or formerly occupied by the
mountain sheep, and the results of these inquiries I give below:
Prof. L.V. Pirsson, of Yale University, who has spent a number of years
in studying the geology of various portions of the northern Rocky
Mountains, wrote me with considerable fullness in 1896 concerning the
game situation in some of the front ranges of the Rockies, where sheep
were formerly very abundant. In the Crazy Mountains he says he saw no
sheep, and that while it was possible they might be there, they must
certainly be rare. In 1880 there were many sheep there. In the Castle
Mountains none were seen, nor reported, nor any traces seen. The same is
true of the Little Belt, Highwood, and Judith Mountains. He understood
that sheep were still present in the bad lands; immediately about the
mountains and east of them the country was too well settled for any game
to live. Earlier, however, in the summer of 1890, passing through the
Snowy Mountains, which lie north of the National Park, sheep were seen
on two occasions; a band of ten ewes and lambs on Sheep Mountain, and a
band of seven rams on the head of the stream known as the Buffalo Fork
of the Lamar River. In 1893 an old ram was killed on Black Butte, at the
extreme eastern end of the Judith Mountains, near Cone Butte, and it is
quite possible that this animal had strayed out of the bad lands on the
lower Musselshell, or on the Missouri. Even at that time there were said
to be no sheep on the Little Rockies, Bearpaws, or Sweetgrass Hills.
All the ranges spoken of were formerly great sheep ranges, and on all of
them, many years ago, I saw sheep in considerable numbers.
There are a very few sheep in the Wolf Mountains of Montana.
There are still mountain sheep among the rough bad lands on both sides
of the Missouri River, between the mouth of the Musselshell and the
mouth of Big Dry. It is hard to estimate the number of these sheep, but
there must be many hundreds of them, and perhaps thousands. As recently
as August, 1900, Mr. S.C. Leady, a ranchman in this region, advised me
that he counted in one bunch, coming to water, forty-nine sheep.
Mr. Leady further advised me that in his country, owing to the sparse
settlement, the game laws are not at all regarded, and sheep are hunted
at all times of the year. The settlers themselves advocate the
protection of the game, but there is really no one to enforce the
laws. Recent advices from this country show that the conditions there
are now somewhat improved.
It is probable that in suitable localities in the Missouri River bad
lands sheep are still found in some numbers all the way from the mouth
of the Little Missouri to the mouth of the Judith River.
Mr. O.C. Graetz, now, or recently, of Kipp, Montana, advised me, through
my friend, J.B. Monroe, that in 1894, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wyo.,
on the head of the Little Horn River, in the rough and rolling country
he saw a band of eleven sheep. The same man tells me that also in 1894,
in Sweetwater county, in Wyoming, near the Sweetwater River, south of
South Pass, on a mountain known as Oregon Butte, he twice saw two
sheep. The country was rolling and high, with scattering timber, but not
much of it. In this country, and at that time, the sheep were not much
hunted.
Mr. Elwood Hofer, one of the best known guides of the West, whose home
is in Gardiner, Park county, Mont., has very kindly furnished me with
information about the sheep on the borders of the Yellowstone National
Park. Writing in May, 1898, he says: "At this time sheep are not
numerous anywhere in this country, compared with what they were before
the railroad (Northern Pacific Railroad) was built in 1881. In summer
they are found in small bands all through the mountains, in and about
the National Park. I found them all along the divide, and out on the
spurs, between the Yellowstone and Stinking Water rivers, and on down
between the Yellowstone and Snake rivers, on one side, and the south
fork of Stinking Water River and the Wind River on the east. I found
sheep at the extreme headwaters of the Yellowstone, and of the Wind
River, and the Buffalo Fork of Snake River. There are sheep in the
Tetons, Gallatin-Madison range, and even on Mount Holmes. I have seen
them around Electric Peak, and so on north, along the west side of the
Yellowstone as far as the Bozeman Pass; but not lately, for I have not
been in those mountains for a number of years. All along the range from
the north side of the Park to within sight of Livingston there are a few
sheep.
"On the Stinking Water, where I used to see bands of fifteen to twenty
sheep, now we only see from three to five. Of late years I have seen
very few large rams, and those only in the Park. Last summer
Mr. Archibald Rogers saw a large ram at the headwaters of Eagle Creek,
very close to the Park. In winter there are usually a few large rams in
the Gardiner Canyon. I hear that there are a few sheep out toward
Bozeman, on Mt. Blackmore, and the mountains near there.
"I believe that some of the reasons for the scarcity of mountain sheep
in this country are these: First, the settlement of the plains country
close to the mountains, prevents their going to their winter ranges, and
so starves them; secondly, the same cause keeps them in the mountains,
where the mountain lions can get at them; and thirdly, the scab has
killed a good many. I do not think that the rifle has had much to do
with destroying the sheep."
Sheep were formerly exceedingly abundant in all the bad lands along the
Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, and in the rough, broken country from
Powder River west to the Big Horn. The Little Missouri country was a
good sheep range, and also the broken country about Fort Laramie. In the
Black Hills of Dakota they were formerly abundant, and also along the
North Platte River, near the canons of the Platte, in the Caspar
Mountain, and in all the rough country down nearly to the forks of the
Platte.
The easternmost locality which I have for the bighorn is the Birdwood
Creek in Nebraska. This lies just north of O'Fallon Station on the Union
Pacific Railroad and flows nearly due south into the North Platte
River. It is in the northwestern corner of Lincoln county, Nebraska,
just west of the meridian of 101 degrees. Here, in 1877, the late Major
Frank North, well known to all men familiar with the West between the
years 1860 and 1880, saw, but did not kill, a male mountain sheep. The
animal was only 100 yards from him, was plainly seen and certainly
recognized. Major North had no gun, and thought of killing the sheep
with his revolver, but his brother, Luther H. North, who was armed with
a rifle, was not far from him, and Major North dropped down out of sight
and motioned his brother to come to him, so that he might kill it. By
the time Luther had come up, the sheep had walked over a ridge and was
not seen again, but there is no doubt as to its identification. It had
probably come from Court House Rock in Scott's Bluff county, Nebraska,
where there were still a few sheep as recently as twenty-five years ago.
These animals were also more or less abundant along the Little Missouri
River as late as the late '80's, and perhaps still later. This had
always been a favorite range for them, and in 1874 they were noticed and
reported on by Government expeditions which passed through the country,
and the hunters and trappers who about that time plied their trade along
that river found them abundant. Mr. Roosevelt has written much of
hunting them on that stream.