There are still mountain sheep among the rough bad lands on both sides of the Missouri River, between the mouth of the Musselshell and the mouth of Big Dry.  It is hard to estimate the number of these sheep, but there must be many hundreds of them, and perhaps thousands.  As recently as August, 1900, Mr. S.C.  Leady, a ranchman in this region, advised me that he counted in one bunch, coming to water, forty-nine sheep.

Mr. Leady further advised me that in his country, owing to the sparse settlement, the game laws are not at all regarded, and sheep are hunted at all times of the year.  The settlers themselves advocate the protection of the game, but there is really no one to enforce the laws.  Recent advices from this country show that the conditions there are now somewhat improved.

It is probable that in suitable localities in the Missouri River bad lands sheep are still found in some numbers all the way from the mouth of the Little Missouri to the mouth of the Judith River.

Mr. O.C.  Graetz, now, or recently, of Kipp, Montana, advised me, through my friend, J.B.  Monroe, that in 1894, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wyo., on the head of the Little Horn River, in the rough and rolling country he saw a band of eleven sheep.  The same man tells me that also in 1894, in Sweetwater county, in Wyoming, near the Sweetwater River, south of South Pass, on a mountain known as Oregon Butte, he twice saw two sheep.  The country was rolling and high, with scattering timber, but not much of it.  In this country, and at that time, the sheep were not much hunted.

Mr. Elwood Hofer, one of the best known guides of the West, whose home is in Gardiner, Park county, Mont., has very kindly furnished me with information about the sheep on the borders of the Yellowstone National Park.  Writing in May, 1898, he says:  “At this time sheep are not numerous anywhere in this country, compared with what they were before the railroad (Northern Pacific Railroad) was built in 1881.  In summer they are found in small bands all through the mountains, in and about the National Park.  I found them all along the divide, and out on the spurs, between the Yellowstone and Stinking Water rivers, and on down between the Yellowstone and Snake rivers, on one side, and the south fork of Stinking Water River and the Wind River on the east.  I found sheep at the extreme headwaters of the Yellowstone, and of the Wind River, and the Buffalo Fork of Snake River.  There are sheep in the Tetons, Gallatin-Madison range, and even on Mount Holmes.  I have seen them around Electric Peak, and so on north, along the west side of the Yellowstone as far as the Bozeman Pass; but not lately, for I have not been in those mountains for a number of years.  All along the range from the north side of the Park to within sight of Livingston there are a few sheep.

“On the Stinking Water, where I used to see bands of fifteen to twenty sheep, now we only see from three to five.  Of late years I have seen very few large rams, and those only in the Park.  Last summer Mr. Archibald Rogers saw a large ram at the headwaters of Eagle Creek, very close to the Park.  In winter there are usually a few large rams in the Gardiner Canyon.  I hear that there are a few sheep out toward Bozeman, on Mt.  Blackmore, and the mountains near there.