24 THE BROWN SHEEP

Nest branch, to the south, cuts the Rockies in what
used to be one of the most favoured places, and it is from
this vicinity that most of the heaviest heads came. Of
course, since the railway was built and coal mines sprang
up there are not a quarter of the number of rams there
were previously, but there are still some in that neighbour-
hood, and hardly a season passes without somebody killing
a ram with at any rate a fair set of horns.

After you leave the Rockies and travel westward you
will not find any more sheep range until you have crossed
the Selkirks and Purcell Ranges and arrive on the western
slope of the Gold Range, which is separated from the
Cascade Range by the Okanagon Valley.

In the southern part of the Okanagon Valley there
used to be large quantities of sheep, but since the Valley
became settled up and turned into a vast orchard they
have been almost exterminated. There remain yet,
however, one or two small bands at both the southern
and northern ends of Okanagon Lake, and these are
zealously guarded by the ranch owners of these districts.

If a man, who knew what sheep ranges should look
like, travelled through the Okanagon Valley he would
never dream that it was, or ever had been, a sheep country,
as, with the exception of what is known as Short’s Moun-
tain, which is situated at the north-west end of the lake,
there is no typical sheep range in the district. It is
essentially a mule-deer country, consisting of rolling
mountains with densely timbered tops and park-like,
sparsely timbered bunch-grass hills lower down, none of
which, with the exception of Short’s Mountain, rise above
timber line. Nevertheless, at one time there were sheep
nearly all the way along the lake and for ten or fifteen
miles south of it. Most of the year they lived at a com-
paratively low altitude, perhaps only a few hundred feet
above the valley, but in the hot summer weather they
would ascend high up into the timber almost to the timber
limit.

The explanation of sheep being found on such a range
is simple. Not very far west of the Okanagon Valley the