, 1886-08-07

Special Correspondence of THE LEADER.
LANDER, Wyo., Aug. "A gentleman
just in from the Big Horn mountains
reports that Mountain Sam" is on his
way 20 Lander with a number of enor-
nous heads of horses of Rocky noun
tain sheep. Mountain Sam" is one of
the most noted trappers and hunters of
the great mountain region Of Central and
Northwestern Wyoming. He has built a
house in the deepest recesses of the Big
Horn mountains and is making a specially
OF killing enormous Rocky mountain
sheep for their heads and horns.
Our hunter is doing quite a thriving
business in this line. and is finding his
moderate demand on fortune more than
meet. While hunting in the Big Horn
mountains several years ago Sam met a
rich Englishman following the chase for
pleasure. The wealthy sportsman en-
ployed the professional hunter as a guide,
and the two roamed through the noun
tains for more than a month together.
When the Englishman bid Sam farewell
he gave him a commission to kill for him
half a dozen of the largest Rocky noun
tain sheep he could find and send the
heads to his New York address. Sam
filled the order; another followed, and
still others from different parties, until
o the hunter has more orders than
Sleeps heads.
Sans unerring rifle brings down his
game, yet he depends upon his magnii-
cent pack OF dogs to get within gunshot
This pack numbers twenty five, and its
business is to round up the wild sheep Of
the mountain peak and crag and hold
them together until their master appears
and picks out and off such animals as he
selects.
Mountain born and bred, these dogs
add to the strength and s~agacity of their
mingled strain of blood hound and bull
cog, u~nexampled endurance and marvel
Gus activity. No declivity is so steep, no
crag so rough, no peak so cloud tipped as
to present an obstacle to these splendid
brutes. The willy and swift Big Horn
sheep finds in these dogs enemies that he
can neither outrun nor shake off. Once
on the scent Of the mountain sheep the
mountain dog is as relentless and certain
as fate itself. The pack works in a sys-
tematic and organized manner On a
trail being struck the dogs divide into
small lunches. Wide circuits are made
and the pursued and doomed sheep are
irresistably impelled toward a common
center. Soon the bunch is gath ered from
all sides and rounded up, and twenty-five
eager dogs, with erect head and tail keep
watch and ward. In case. as sometimes
occurs, the spot where the round up takes
place, is utterly inaccessible to a human
foot. the hunter gives notice to his faith
full four-footed allies of the tact in a pecu-
liar IA -reaching shout. AS this signal
falls upon their ears the dogs rush into
the midst Of the herd of sheep, seize the
largest, throttle them to death and roll
the carcases from pinnacle to pinnacle,
from precipice to precipice, until a spot is
finally reached where the foot of the mas
ter can with safety tread.
These dogs have rounded up as many
as $50 head of Rocky mountain sheep in
one bunch, and have been known to hold
sheep over six hours awaiting the arrival
OF their master detained by the difficulties
OF the way.
The members of this invaluable pack
are lineally descended from a pair brought
INTO this region by a then well known
English sportsman in the early days OF
old Fort Stambaugh. When the English
man left these mountains he gave his dogs
to Pap" Conant, then well known as a
hunter and prospector, and now known as
half owner Of the Bonanza oil spring IN
the Big Horn basin. Conant gave his old
friend and ,omrade, an ountain SAM" a
couple Of the pups of the first litter, and
these pups are the neuclus Of the now
famous native pack Of the Big Horn
mountains. G.. X. G.