The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-29
HOW MOUNTAIN SHEEP LEAP.
The Ease With Which One of Them
 Rids Himself of Dogs in Pursuit.

The Ease With Which One of Them
 Rids Himself of Dogs in Pursuit.
 Soon after we started a black bear he ran along the foot of cliff and past a bunch of moutnain sheep up on the cliffs, following one of them to the edge. It was big ram and when he got near the edge of the cliff he came to bay, and for several minutes stood off one of the fox teriers which had kept close to him. Pretty soon a foxhound got up on top and joined the terrier and they both made a charge on the sheep and it looked pretty bad for him, as we thought, but he did not seem to think so, for he made a sidewise spring straight out from the edge of the precipice apparently six or eight feet, and then spread his feet in a sort of bracing way, and with his body in perfectly horizontal position and parallel to the face of the cliff dropped straight down to the foot of the cliff.
 There is an old theory that noun tain sheep in jumping from cliff light on their horns but that has long been exploded. However, many have sup posed that they jumped down in the ordinary way, alighting first on their front feet. This, believe, Is also an error, except when the distance is slight, Where the distance is at all great, now entertain no doubt that they light on al their feet at once, and as squarely as if standing still, just as this one did. The position of this sheep when dropping was stiff legged, but the instant his feet touched the ground his joints gave way, With in- lcreasing resistance, however, acting as springs, until his belly almost touched the ground, before the force of the i'm past was overcome by the muscular resistance. The philosophy of this Is obvious. 6,
 The hoofs of the mountain sheep are lalso heavily cushioned and are about as elastic as rubber ball. There seefned to be no more jar when this sheep lit then if he had descended but two or three feet. He was up and away instantly and was soon out of reach of the dogs, which wouldn't think of making the jump.
 A short distance to the left of where the sheep stood the cliff sloped off so that he could have descended to the foot of it easily and without a leap of more than four or five feet, but the dogs could have followed ana thus kept hot after him. This way down was in plain sight of the sheep, and he was no doubt perfectly fami- | liar with 1t and with all the features of the cliff, as it was his home. It seemed as if the sheep decided that the only or best way to baffle the dogs was to do something that they could not do. would not dare to assert that such was the case lest I should run up against some of the naturalists who claim that wild animals do not reason.
 The dogs were afraid to approach | even as near the euBe OI tHe ClllL dS where the sheep stood when he jump ed, and when he had passed out of their sight over the edge they seemed to think he had taken wing, as they immediately quit the chase and came l back to us.
 MT. Smith and myself were on the opposite side of the gulch, about 200 yards away, and saw the whole per formance, which lasted several min utes. It was the finest exhibition of animal agility ever saw or expect to see. How far a sheep can jump, or rather drop, and not hurt himself do not know, but this was pretty good. I went up to the spot afterwards and measured the height of the cliff as ac- curately as possible, and found 1t to be between twenty and twenty five feet. From the ease with which he made it I should think he could almost double the distance without injury l Denver Post.