Bighorn

a wild sheep of the Rocky Mountain region. It formerly ranged from Alaska to Mexico and into the Ozark Mountains, but is now restricted to the head waters of the Yellowstone and the region northward. There are several species. The common bighorn is about forty inches high; its summer coat is a tawny yellow, which in winter changes to a grayish brown. The horns of the ram are very large, thick, and strong. They sweep backward in spirals, attaining a total length of from thirty-five to forty inches along the outer curve. The natural range of the bighorn is on elevated table lands or mountains, ranging above the timber line and below that of perpetual snow. Ceaseless persecution by the puma, the Indians, and, in later years, by the American hunter, with his long range rifle, have taught the bighorn to be exceedingly wary. It is a strong runner and a fearless jumper. It is considered one of the most desirable game animals and one which sportsmen find very hard to take. Two kids are usually produced at a birth.

For a romantic account of the bighorn, see Ernest Thompson-Seton's "Krag," in Lives of the Hunted. The bighorn will doubtless be exterminated sooner or later, but its name has been given to a range of mountains and a river of Wyoming and Montana in a region which is yet its home, and which embraces some of the noblest mountain scenery in the world.

A spirited poem by Mary Austin in St. Nicholas for September, 1909, pays this magnificent animal a fine tribute.