Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-09-09
MOUNTAIN SHEEP.
HARDY CREATURES, VERY LIKE
a GOAT.
Inaccessible Mountain Peaks Their
HOme-Hunters Rarely Get
shot-LeapIng to Death Be
fore Submitting to Capture.

l1ueeu IL was ulSPu'O ohOuS nNNN'
for long time which name should be
applied, and even the naturalists joined
in the discussion. But sheep generally
have holes between the toes in front,
sccreting au oily substance, aud have
distinct lachrymal senuses or tear
glands beneath the eve. Just exactly
what either are for no one has risen up
to explain. I suspect the modern theo-
rist would say that it hinted at an an
cestry that had tender heart ard oiled
its shoes regularly. That is about as
good reasoning as some of the modern
biological logic. Goats differ from sheep
in having a beard aud rather straight
horns-never curving so as to bring the
tins forward. Still they almost merge
into each other, some sheep emitting the
feet and tear glands, one or both, aud
some goats showing rudamentary ten
dency toward having either.
Our American sheep (ovis Montana)
are found from the Bad Lands west to
the Pacific, especially along the high
ranges of the Rocky Mountains, as far
south as the region of the Rio Grande,
and as far north as Alaska. At times it
verges upon the habitat of the mountain
goat (Which is an antelope), and by the
unobscrvant is often mistaken for it.
But the goat is pure white, with short,
glossy black, nearly straight horns and
black hoofs, while the sheep is grayish
brown with white buttocks and line OF
white down the back edges OF the legs.
Sometimes in the spring the brown Is
rubbed off the old males, when they ap-
pear white, but their immense horns,
with length often of thirty-four inches
around the curve, a circumference OF
thirteen inches at the base ami a spread
at the tips of more than twenty inches,
easily differentiates then. The females
have small goat. like horns, but are never
white. While the goats frequent the
bleakest regions of our Northwest noun
tains, feeding above timber line on
moses and lichens, the sheep stray
lower down, freQuenting abrupt pin
acles that are below the snow limit
and descending at times into
the higher meadows aud valleys
for food and water. Like all rumlnants
thev feed mostly at early morn aud late
eve. but am satisfied from a summers
chasing OF flock that there is no reg
ularity about it. | am sure that at times
they descend for water during the night,
or at least the yet dark hours OF the
morning. 1 once scared small flock
away from a lake at 3 o'clock P. NJ, and
climbed till | could breathe to my shoe
soles trying to overtake them. When
mountain sheep once discovers you,
either by smell or sight, he is going to
the home peak without any stops for
dinner. l have before me now accurate
drawings Of the animals foot, and aside
from the knife-like edges of the hoof l
cannot see by what means it could ad
here to smooth surfaces where a hob
nailed shoe would slip as if on ice. My
companion and would lean long dead
pines up these slopes and climb them,
and on their upper edge find the game
trail leading gracefully on. l believe it
was largely matter of muscular impetus
that carried them over such places, and
nature, instead of adapting the foot to
the surroundings, has compensated with
strength and skill. Sometimes the sheep
would water at second lake, so that the
days we watched one they would drink
at the other.
The naturalists say that the male; sep
arate from the flock during the summer,
but that was not so in this case. One
afternoon 1 shouldered my gun aud
much resolution and started for the
usual chase. 1t rained on the way up
and the air was redolent with various
odors. As neared the base of Sheep
Mountain rank scent came down on
the wind aud did not wonder that old
hunters called these animals goats. Then
began that cautious sneak that only
hunter can and took up tortuous and
torturing tramp that only hunter will
till my back ached and my knees were
bruised against boulders and dead logs.
Still no cautious peep around the rocks
revealed the game. At last the bare,
unscalable breast Of the peak stood up
before me and that rank, enticing odor
still coming down its sides. | looked
at my pocket neroid-S9'5 feet. |
would climb to that rock there aud
make it eveu-so mp in a little niche ]
lay down to rest with the index at 5000.
A little spider ran upon my gunstocS.
took out magnifying glass aud began
to look him over, when it flashed on
me for the first time that here was one
with six eyes. l was wondering
why he did not have eight
like other spiders, and what
use be had for so many anyway, when
saw male sheep appear from around the
base Of the mountain, pause, and disap-
pear around the other side. never
knew what became Of the spider or how
/ got down. When l straightened up