14 MOUNTAIN SHEEP

frozen. There was one particular opportunity I had of
studying their habits that was exceptionally good. There
was a place known to me where there were about one
hundred and sixty ewes and young rams, and about the
end of the first week in November another man and I
went to look for them. Unfortunately for our comfort
the weather turned cold just when we started, and by the
time we got near the mountain where the sheep were,
over a foot of snow had fallen and a regular blizzard was
blowing, which caused many of the sheep to move to lower
altitudes. However, they had not all gone, as we found
between seventy and eighty ewes and young rams and
fourteen mature rams—almost every one of which was a
shootable beast—still there. They were scattered in
clumps over the bottom of a huge amphitheatre, and the
only satisfactory position we could find to watch them
from was away up at the top where the altitude must
have been over eight thousand feet. There was not a
particle of shelter to be had from the raging wind, and
to get a good view we had to lie down in the snow and
peer over the edge of a bluff. We both suffered terribly
from the bitter cold during the hour or two we managed
to stay there, but it was well worth the hardship. The
ewes were spread over an area of about a hundred and
fifty yards, in bunches of twos and threes, in eights and
tens, or perhaps larger numbers; some were lying down,
others standing still, and a few feeding in a desultory
manner. The rams were scattered here and there among
the ewes, moving about in a leisurely way and showing
no sign of excitement or haste. A ram would collect a
small bunch of ewes and move them off a short distance,
then he would leave them to go after others. If he came
on a ewe that was lying down and did not want to move
he would strike her with his foot until she got up. If
a ram left a bunch of ewes for any length of time another
ram would make a raid on them and drive them to a lot
he had already collected. Every once in a while several
rams would be after the same ewes, and then there would
be a bit of a fight, but only once or twice were anything