The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1875-07-15
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP.
How -aydeu's Scientists Hunt Them-A
Description OF the Animal

| Description OF the Animal
\ member OF the Hayden expedition
! writes as follows: AS We rode through :,
narrow canon, walled on one side BIZ a
steep bank covered with trees and on the
other by towering mass OF perpendicular
rock, happening TO glance upward, We saw.
| standing ON one OF the narrow lodges of the
latter, flock Of sheep, which some of us at
first took for antelope, which was a very
ridiculous error. Every one observed them
at the same time, and for an instant SD
great was our surprise, not 4 man stirred
in his saddle. There, with inquisitiye
gaze, unrnixed with fear, scarcely loo feet
above US, were seven Rocky Mountain
sheep, five OF them full grown, and two OF
them small lambs. In our excitement We
did not determine how many were rams
and how many ewes, but, as both sexes are
endowed with horns, this oversight NAV
have been excusable. At the same second.
As if at a given signal, each man leaned
from his seat, and, bending one knee to the
ground, picked out his animal and fred.
There was quick movement among our
animals, and almost instantaneously both
mules and sheep were out of sight. The
two little lambs, however, appeared again
in perpendicular crevice near the summit
of the rock, and, bleating piteously, skipped
over such seemingly inaccessible places,
that they resembled flies gliding rapidly up
wall. This was signal for numerous
wild shots; for, although most of tie bows
were good marksmen, the sudden unlocked
for appearance of this noble game unneryed
them and they shot wide Of the mark.
Thus it came about that we had no tender
Wild mutton for our dinner.
A few words in this place relative 10
these animals NAV be OF interest. 4
iull-grown ram is as large as good
sized domestic calf. lis Goa; OF hair
resembles in texture and color
that Of deer being coarse and of gray
color. The horns are stout and curved
backward, As in domestic sheen, with the
exception that they are much larger. The
female possesses them also, being straighter
ana shorter. Hunters saw that in descend
ing from rocky cliff thev throw them
selves sometimes over fifty feet. alichtinr on
their horns, which are so elastic that the |
animal bounds into the air and alirhts ON |
Its feet. This Is very plausible, as the IN
dams use these horns for bows, possessing
some means of Strengthening them out for |
this purpose. An ordinary sheen viii |
weigh 800 or 600 pounds.
The excitement being over (who can
blame man for becoming excited on sucb |
an occasion, when it is known that these
animals are becoming so rare even in the
p there was nothing left but 10
-esume our journey, regnetting the haste with
which he had acted. But not a mule was
fax
We found them in little hollow surrounded
'y dense thicket, in which they had un-
eorraled themselves, all standing
n circle, with their long, solemn moses
3 1uching, seeming to be consulting among
themselves which way to proceed to get
AWAY from their prosecutors. We drove on
Tor about fourteen miles without stopping
Tor the day. The road Law in dust sis
inches thick, and as the wind blew br;sklv
We were constantly enveloped in dense clouds.
our eyes soon felt like deserts of sand with
:, hu9.pooi in each corner, and We were
ike blind men following the blind.