In Nevada Mr. Bailey found sheep in the Toyabe range.

Mr. Bailey found sheep in the Seven Devils Mountains, and he and Dr. Merriam found them in the Salmon River, Pahsimeroi and Sawtooth Mountains, all in Idaho.  Mr. Bailey also found them in Texas in the Guadaloupe Mountains and in most of the ranges thence south to the boundary line in western Texas.

* * * * *

From what has already been said it will be seen that in inaccessible places all over the western country, from the Arctic Ocean south to Mexico, and at one or two points in the great plains, there still remain stocks of mountain sheep.  Once the most unsuspicious and gentle of all our large game animals, they have become very shy, wary, and well able to take care of themselves.  In the Yellowstone Park, on the other hand, they have reverted to their old time tameness, and no longer regard man with fear.  There, as is told on other pages of this volume, they are more tame than the equally protected antelope, mule deer or elk.

Should the Grand Canyon of the Colorado be set aside as a national park, as it may be hoped it will be, the sheep found there will no doubt increase, and become, as they now are in the Yellowstone Park, a most interesting natural feature of the landscape.  And in like manner, when game refuges shall be established in the various forest reservations all over the western country, this superb species will increase and do well.  Alert, quick-witted, strong, fleet and active, it is one of the most beautiful and most imposing of North American animals.  Equally at home on the frozen snowbanks of the mountain top, or in the parched deserts of the south, dwelling alike among the rocks, in the timber, or on the prairie, the mountain sheep shows himself adaptable to all conditions, and should surely have the best protection that we can give him.

I shall never forget a scene witnessed many years ago, long before railroads penetrated the Northwest.  I was floating down the Missouri River in a mackinaw boat, the sun just topping the high bad land bluffs to the east, when a splendid ram stepped out, upon a point far above the water, and stood there outlined against the sky.  Motionless, with head thrown back, and in an attitude of attention, he calmly inspected the vessel floating along below him; so beautiful an object amid his wild surroundings, and with his background of brilliant sky, that no hand was stretched out for the rifle, but the boat floated quietly on past him, and out of sight.

George Bird Grinnell.

[Illustration:  Merycodus osborni MATTHEW.  From the Middle Miocene of Colorado.  Discovered and described by Dr. W. D. Matthew.  Mounted by Mr. Adam Hermann.  Height at withers, 19 inches.  Length of antlers, 9 inches.]

Preservation of the Wild Animals of North America[8]

[Footnote 8:  Address before the Boone and Crockett Club, Washington, January 23, 1904.]