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
In 1899 there was a bunch of sheep in east central Utah, about thirty
miles north of the station of Green River, on the Rio Grande Western
Railroad, and on the west side of the Green River. These were on the
ranch of ex-member of Congress, Hon. Clarence E. Allen, and were
carefully protected by the owners of the property. The ranch hands are
instructed not to kill or molest them in any manner, and to do nothing
that will alarm them. They come down occasionally to the lower ground,
attracted by the lucerne, as are also the deer, which sometimes prove
quite a nuisance by getting into the growing crops. The sheep spend most
of their time in the cliffs not far away. When first seen, about 1894,
there were but five sheep in the bunch, while in 1899 twenty were
counted. This information was very kindly sent to me by
Mr. C.H. Blanchard, at one time of Silver City, but more recently of
Salt Lake City, in Utah.
Mr. W.H. Holabird, formerly of Eddy, New Mexico, but more recently of
Los Angeles, Cal., tells me that during the fall of 1896 a number of
splendid heads were brought into Eddy, N.M. He is told that mountain
sheep are quite numerous in the rugged ridge of the Guadeloupe
Mountains, bands of from five to twelve being frequently seen. As to
California, he reports: "We have a good many mountain sheep on the
isolated mountain spurs putting out from the main ranges into the
desert. I frequently hear of bands of two to ten, but our laws protect
them at all seasons."
My friend, Mr. Herbert Brown, of Yuma, Ariz., so well known as an
enthusiastic and painstaking observer of natural history matters, has
kindly written me something as to the mountain sheep in that
Territory. He says: "Under the game law of Arizona the killing of
mountain sheep is absolutely prohibited, but that does not prevent their
being killed. It does, however, prevent their being killed for the
market, and it was killing for the market that threatened their
extermination. So far as I have ever been able to learn, these sheep
range, or did range, on all the mountains to the north, west, and south
of Tucson, within a hundred miles or so. I know of them in the
Superstition Mountains, about a hundred miles to the north; in the
Quijotoas Mountains, a like distance to the southwest, and in the
mountains intermediate; I have no positive proof of their existence in
the Santa Ritas, but about twenty-three years ago I saw a pair of old
and weather-beaten horns that had been picked up in that range near Agua
Caliente, that is about ten or twelve miles southwest of
Mt. Wrightson. I never saw any sheep in the range, nor do I know of any
one more fortunate than myself in that respect. In days gone by the
Santa Catalinas, the Rincon, and the Tucson Mountains were the most
prolific hunting grounds for the market men. So far as I can remember,
the first brought to the market here were subsequent to the coming of
the railroad in 1880. They were killed in the Tucson Mountains by the
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