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Of the large animals we have the wapiti, a species of deer; two species of the black-tailed deer; a long-tailed deer; and the prong-horned antelope; also the wild goat; the bighorn sheep of the Rocky Mountains; and last, though not least, the American bison, familiarly known as the buffalo the inhabitant of the wide-spreading plains and prairies extending from the Arctic Circle to Mexico.
The mountains were filled with deer, bear, bighorn, and elk, while the plains below were black with herds of buffalo. They were very wealthy. Many hundreds of years they remained the happiest race on earth, always victorious in battle, and never suffering for food. His people loved him for his good qualities, and the justice with which he administered the affairs of the nation.
Lower down were thick forests of firs and red cedars, growing out in many places from the very fissures of the rocks. The mountains were broken and precipitous, with huge bluffs protruding from among the forests. Their rocky recesses and beetling cliffs afforded retreats to innumerable flocks of the bighorn, while their woody summits and ravines abounded with bears and black-tailed deer.
The two parties came together two or three days afterwards, on the 4th of August, after having passed through the gap of the Littlehorn Mountain. In company with Campbell's convoy was a trapping party of the Rocky Mountain Company, headed by Fitzpatrick; who, after Campbell's embarkation on the Bighorn, was to take charge of all the horses, and proceed on a trapping campaign.
The bighorn is extremely like the Asiatic argali, and was for a long time regarded as identical with the latter; but this was an error. It is now ascertained that not only is the American animal of another species, but also that there are several distinct species of the argali itself in the different ranges of Asiatic mountains. Africa has its wild sheep, but only in its northern parts.
They made the mountains echo with their rifles, and, in the course of two days' hunting, killed twenty-eight bighorn and black-tailed deer. The party now revelled in abundance.
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.
The return journey in the dusk or by moonlight was never without incident: porcupine, deer, bear, Bighorn, mountain lion some kind of game invariably crossed my trail. And, as was true in all pioneer regions, the community abounded in interesting personalities.
It was not to be expected that our travellers could pass unseen through a region thus vigilantly sentineled; accordingly, in the edge of the evening, not long after they had encamped at the foot of the Bighorn Sierra, a couple of wild-looking beings, scantily clad in skins, but well armed, and mounted on horses as wild-looking as themselves, were seen approaching with great caution from among the rocks.
Indeed, the strong odor of cat was very pronounced; and that, without the big fresh tracks, made the skin on my face tighten and chill. As we turned a jutting point in the wall, a number of animals, which I did not recognize, plunged helter-skelter down the canyon slope. "Rocky Mountain sheep!" exclaimed Jones. "Look! Well, this is a discovery. I never heard of a bighorn in the Canyon."
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