Rocky Mountain Big-horn

At last we have reached that gallant fellow, the mountain sheep or big-horn. A true elltt-dweller is he. Born under the shelving rocks of a beetling cliff, sometimes actually cradled in the snow, and reared in the stormy atmosphere of high altitudes, he is a typical mountaineer. Wherever you find him at home, depend upon it that you will also flnd the finest scenery of the district. Tbis animal loves a birds-eye view of a mountain landscape as well as does any member of the geological survey. A steep descent, with a narrow, level valley and a thread-like river spread lika a relief map three thousand feet before him, is his delig'ht. In farmer times hö was venturesome, and often wandered miles away from his mountain home to explore tempting tracts of bad lands; and, being ujimolested, he sometimes took up a permanent residence in such places. But the venturesome inhabitants of low, isolated mountains and shelterless bad lands have paid with their lives for their ploneering, and now a mountain sheep is rarely found elsewhere than amid mountains worthy of the name. Kill one fine old mounttjn ram by your own efforts In climbing and stalklng, and we will cali you a sportsman, with a oapital S - provided you save his head for mounting, and his flesh for the platter. But no ewes, mind you! Ewes and lambs count against you, rather than to your credit. Can I ever forget how I once traveled all the way from Washineton to Wyomlng, killed just one superb mountain ram amidst grand scenery preaerved him, carried his "eaddle" to Washington, and called my pleasure trip a complete success? Irdiy. Even the recollectlon of It Is worth four times the money lt cost. That particular mountain sheep stood four feet three lnches in helght at the shoulders. He was four feet ten inches In length of head and body, and his girth was three feet eight inches. He leaped off a low rldge of bare rock, feil dead on a foot of snow In the head of a rock-walled gulch, and oh! boys, how fine he was! Up in the mountain park he had been pawing through the snow to get at the spears of dry grass that were there obtainable; and in spite of the difflculty of the process, and the pitiful scantlness of the grazing, I was astonished beyond measure at finding that his stomach contained fully half a bushei of that same grass. He was not only in good flesh, but posltively fat; and from the fact that to save our lives Fleming, the packer. and I, both muscular men, could not !Jf c him upon a mulé to carry him to our camp, and for other reasons I am certain that he weighed at least three hundred pounds.