SHEEP OF THE ASHNOLA RIVER 25

Similkameen district is reached, and here you came to
the eastern boundary of the Cascade Mountains. In
these mountains there is a small river, a tributary of the
Similkameen River, which has its origin in the summit of
the range near the United States boundary line. It is
called the Ashnola River, and at its head waters is, or
rather used to be, what was. probably the best sheep
range, for its size, on the whole continent. When I first
came to this country this part of the Cascades was simply
alive with sheep, and had been for so many years that
numbers of them were forced to migrate. Eventually
they worked their way down to the Ashnola River, across
the Similkameen River, and along it over to the Okanagon
Valley. Here they found some of the foothills that had
rough, bluffy spots, particularly so at the south end of
the lake, and not finding any more suitable ground
stayed there, and gradually became acclimatized to the
lower altitude.

The glories of the Ashnola Sheep Range, a piece of the
country that not only abounded in sheep and mule-deer,
but possessed wonderful scenery, splendid climate, the
best water and camping grounds, and was thus a perfect
paradise for sportsmen, did not last long as far as the
sheep were concerned. Luckily it is beyond man’s power
to spoil the magnificent grandeur of those glorious moun-
tains. Unfortunately the locality was too easy of access,
too easy to travel over. The sheep were plentiful and so
confiding that the veriest duffer could kill them, and so
all sorts and conditions of men flocked there intent on
slaughter. Consequently, as the extent of the sheep range
was smaller in area, and at that time game protection
was non-existent, there could only be one result. The
sheep, both rams and ewes, were slain in what was nothing
less than a criminal manner. Numbers of men went in
there and thought nothing of bringing out ten or a dozen
heads at a time.

When game preservation began in earnest the Ashnola
Range was closed up and the regulation well enforced for
a number of years, so that the few surviving sheep began