American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
History
American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
Big game hunting -- United States
The present range of the different forms of mountain sheep extends from
Alaska and from the Pacific Ocean east to the Rocky Mountains--with a
tongue extending down the Missouri River as far as the Little
Missouri--south to Sonora and Lower California. The various forms from
north to south appear to be Dall's sheep, the saddleback sheep, Stone's
sheep, the common bighorn, with the Missouri River variety, existing to
the east, in the bad lands, and with Nelson's, the Mexican and the Lower
California sheep running southward into Mexico.
Among the experienced hunters of both forms of Dall's sheep are
Messrs. Dali DeWeese, of Colorado, and A.J. Stone, Collector of Arctic
Mammals for the American Museum of Natural History. Mr. Stone gives two
distinct ranges for this sheep, (1) the Alaska Mountains and Kenai
Peninsula, and (2) the entire stretch of the Rocky Mountains north of
latitude 60 degrees to near the Arctic coast just at the McKenzie,
reaching thence west to the headwaters of the Noatak and Kowak rivers
that flow into Kotzebue Sound.
Stone's sheep, which was described by Dr. Allen in 1897, came from the
head of the Stickine River, and two years after its description Dr. J.A.
Allen quotes Mr. A.J. Stone, the collector, as saying: "I traced the
_Ovis stonei_, or black sheep, throughout the mountainous country
of the headwaters of the Stickine, and south to the headwaters of the
Nass, but could find no reliable information of their occurrence further
south in this longitude. They are found throughout the Cassiar
Mountains, which extend north to 61 degrees north latitude and west to
134 degrees west longitude. How much further west they may be found I
have been unable to determine. Nor could I ascertain whether their range
extends from the Cassiar Mountains into the Rocky Mountains to the north
of Francis and Liard River. But the best information obtained led me to
believe that it does not. They are found in the Rocky Mountains to the
south as far as the headwaters of the Nelson and Peace rivers in
latitude 56 degrees, but I proved conclusively that in the main range of
the Rocky Mountains very few of them are found north of the Liard
River. Where this river sweeps south through the Rocky Mountains to
Hell's Gate, a few of these animals are founds as far north as Beaver
River, a tributary of the Liard. None, however, are found north of this,
and I am thoroughly convinced that this is the only place where these
animals may be found north of the Liard River.
"I find that in the Cassiar Mountains and in the Rocky Mountains they
everywhere range above timber line, as they do in the mountains of
Stickine, the Cheonees, and the Etsezas.
"Directly to the north of the Beaver River, and north of the Liard River
below the confluence of the Beaver, we first meet with _Ovis
dalli_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account