There were sheep in and about the Black Hills of Dakota as late as 1890, for Mr. W.S.  Phillips has kindly informed me that about June of that year he saw three sheep on Mt.  Inyan Kara.  These were the only ones actually seen during the summer, but they were frequently heard of from cattle-men, and Mr. Phillips considers it beyond dispute that at that time they ranged from Sundance, Inyan Kara and Bear Lodge Mountains—­all on the western and southwestern slope of the Black Hills, on and near the Wyoming-Dakota line—­on the east, westerly at least to Pumpkin Buttes and Big Powder River, and in the edge of the bad lands of Wyoming as far north as the Little Missouri Buttes, and south to the south fork of the Cheyenne River, and the big bend of the north fork of the Platte, and the head of Green River.  This range is based on reports of reliable range riders, who saw them in passing through the country.  It is an ideal sheep country—­rough, varying from sage brush desert, out of which rises an occasional pine ridge butte, to bad lands, and the mountains of the Black Hills.  There are patches of grassy, fairly good pasture land.  The country is well watered, and there are many springs hidden under the hills which run but a short distance after they come out of the ground and then sink.  Timber occurs in patches and more or less open groves on the pine ridges that run sometimes for several miles in a continuous hill, at a height of from one to three or four hundred feet above the plain.  The region is a cattle country.

In 1893 and ’97 fresh heads and hides were seen at Pocotello, Idaho, and at one or two other points west of there in the lava country along Snake River and the Oregon short line.  The sheep were probably killed in the spurs and broken ranges that run out on the west flank of the main chain of the Rockies toward the Blue Mountains of Oregon.

Mr. William Wells, of Wells, Wyo., has very kindly given me the following notes as to Colorado, where he formerly resided.  He says:  “During 1890, ’91, ’92, there were a good many mountain sheep on the headwaters of Roan Creek, a tributary of Grand River, in Colorado.  Roan Creek heads on the south side of the Roan or Book Plateau, and flows south into Grand River.  The elevation of Grand River at this point is about 5,000 feet, and the elevation of the Book Plateau is about 8,500 feet.  The side of the plateau toward Grand River consists of cliffs from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, and as the branches of Roan Creek head on top of the plateau they form very deep box canyons as they cut their way to the river.  It is on these cliffs and in these canyons that the sheep were found.  I understand that there are some there yet, but I have not been in that section since 1892.  On all the cliffs are benches or terraces—­a cliff of 300 to 1,000 feet at the top, then a bench, then another cliff, and so on to the bottom.  The benches are well grassed, and there is more or less timber, quaking asp, spruce and juniper in the side canyons.  There are plenty of springs along the cliffs, and as they face the south, the winter range is good.  The top of the plateau is an open park country, and at that time was, and is yet, for that matter, full of deer and bear, but I never saw any sheep on top, though they sometimes come out on the upper edge of the cliffs.