Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-10-08

for big game, and he who
would successfully hunt the
mountain sheep should possess more
than the ordinary endowment of these
characteristics Unlike many other
animals, these cannot be hunted by
rule O. thumb. Rules for sheep hunt
ing are usually true only in the ex-
ceptions, and the only one really worth
bearing in mind is to always expect
the unexpected" writes l.. R. Freeman
in Los Angeles Times.
Prepare to climb if you go for
sheep in the Cocopahs, and don't ex-
pect to find any under 5000 feet"
Thus said experienced friends in
Yuma when / first went off down the
Colorado for hunt in the Delta coun-
try, and the only sheep l shot this
trip was secured at the edge Of
plain and at an elevation, or rather
depression, of 100 feet below sea level.
mo us looking for sheep at the
lower water holes after last nights
cloudburst in the upper mountains"
said the Mexican guides who had
taken me down to Mt. San Pedro on
another occasion, and an hour later
gunless-I was crowded into one Of
those very water holes by big ram
whose only line of fight CHANGED to
Ne by a footwide ledge along which
was gingerly picking my way
Below Sea Level.
The spot where 1 shot my 'subma-
oh an |
have alluded to as having been shot
below sea level was dubbed, first APP
peared to me In a mirage. 1t was
scorching MONDAY on that sun-baked
stretch of white alkali which leads
from the edge of the Imperial irriga-
ton country down to the desolate Co
copahs. The sky was dome of ham
mered brass, inverted over floor of
cleaning zinc, the plain. The wheels
of the camp wagon moved noiselessly
over the yielding alkali and no sound
broke the stiffness save the monoton-
Gus creak of the springs and the occa-
sional clank of a trace chain.
Gradually out of the steel-gray glow
of the air that marked the spot where
sky and plain merged in a misty blur,
shimmering lake of crystal water
began to form, the wavelets of whose
farther side Tapped against a beach
of black sand lying in the right-angled
embrasure of towering yellow cliff,
the latter standing out so clear and
on the eyeball.
The water and cliff had been tanta-
lizingly receding before us for perhaps
an hour, when down to one side of the
lake came walking three full-grown
mountain sheep-one ram and two
ewes. Right off into the water they
marched, the glittering surface of the
lake gradually closing over them with
out splash or ripple.
After an interval of minute or
two the big back-curving horns of the
ram appeared, bobbed along the sur
face OF the lake for a hundred yards
or more as if detached, to be finally
followed by the shoulders and body Of
their owner A moment later the ewes
wobbled into view, and all three trot-
ted out on the beach and disappeared
in a depression at the apex of the
great right-angled cliff.
Later, returning from two weeks Of
fruitless climbing in the parched Coco
pahs, we CHANGED upon the same dis
tinctive cliff observed in the mirage,
camped at the waterhole deep back in
the angle of its overhang, and the fol-
loving morning shot a fine young ram
that was coming down at sun-up for
an early drink. This instance is the
only one have knowledge of where
mountain sheep has been shot below
sea level. The phenomenon Of the
animals appearing to walk through the
water was undoubtedly caused by the
not uncommon combination of true
mirage and lake effect due only
to the agitation of the waves OF heated
air.
Once Plentiful.
Up to very few years ago-and
probably still--sheep were fairly plenti-
full in the low desert mountains which
here and thelF hem in the Colorado