46 SPORT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

It grew cold up there and the piercing wind soon drove me down again, and when I reached the forest belt, I found whole lanes trampled by moose! What a wonderful sensation it is to wander about alone in the wilderness with the signs of abundant game all about one, and the rather pleasing knowledge that one has the ground to oneself, with no human beings within hundreds of miles. I was disturbed in these pleasant meditations by a large bird taking wing close to me. It was a Richardson’s Grouse (Dendvagapus obscurus R.), I believe, and being rather startled I missed it with both barrels.

In camp the Indians had had in the meantime a good laugh at the expense of Billy, the cook. It appeared that he had come running back to the tents yelling that he had encountered a bear, but the bear was soon reduced to a large porcupine, which at a distance really does most remarkably resemble a bear en miniature.

I hoped to find both wild sheep and goats in these mountains. The wild sheep, or “Big Horn” as it is commonly called in America on account of its large curled horns, is found along the entire length of the Rocky Mountain chain from Mexico into Northern Alaska, and even continues over on the Asiatic side, where a similar kind of sheep is found in the mountains of Kamtchatka. The scientific name of the species is Ovis Canadensis, but the many different latitudes under which it lives have naturally influenced its outward appearance to a certain extent, and several distinct varieties of the species are recognized.

In Mexico and in Lower California we have the Ovis C. Nelsoni, which differs very little from the typical