pomeo aati a

CHAPTER III
THE BROWN SHEEP

Tur study of the Brown Sheep of this continent—the
word ‘“‘ brown,” while hardly suitable, will be used for
the sake of convenience to distinguish them from their
northern relatives—their appearance, habits, variations
and points of resemblance to the other species, afford a
most fascinating study, but is a subject which it is not
my intention to go into at very great length.

As far as my knowledge goes, all the sheep of this con-
tinent, until the discovery of the northern varieties,
were classed as one species, the Ovis montana. They were
then commonly called “Big Horn,” but now, more
generally, brown sheep. Later on, the sheep on the
United States side of the line were divided up into several
sub-species, and those on the Canadian side christened
Ovis canadensis.

The Canadian specimens which were examined for
classification purposes were all secured from the Rocky
Mountains—some from this Province, others from that of
Alberta. As it happens, the Rockies are not the only
range in this Province where brown sheep are to be found,
as they used to exist in far greater numbers, and still do
so to a lesser extent, on the south-eastern slope of the
Cascade range and in one or two spots on the south-western
slope of the Gold Range. Between the Rockies and the
Cascades there are two huge ranges, the Selkirks and
Purcells, also a lesser range called the Gold Range, so the
distance between the two groups of sheep is considerable,
as they do not exist on either of the two first mentioned,
at any rate permanently. Once in a while a wandering

ram may leave the western slope of the Rockies and
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