The horns of the female are much smaller, and nearly erect, having but a slight curvature, and an inclination backwards and outwards."

The following are the dimensions of an old Rocky Mountain ram, killed on the south branch of the Mackenzie, and now in the Museum of the Zoological Society of London.

Length of tail,

Length of horn, measured along the curvature,
Circumference of horn at its base,

Distance from tip to tip of the horns,

2 10

1

2 3

These animals collect in flocks consisting of from three to thirty, the young rams and the females herding together during the winter and spring, while the old rams form separate flocks, except during the month of December, which is their rutting-season. "The ewes bring forth in June or July, and then retire with their lambs to the most inaccessible heights. Mr Drummond informs me, that in the retired parts of the mountains, where the hunters had seldom penetrated, he found no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep, which there exhibited the simplicity of character so remarkable in the domestic species; but that where they had been often fired at they were exceedingly wild, alarmed their companions on the approach of danger by hissing noise, and scaled the rocks with a speed and agility that baffled pursuit. He lost several that he had mortally wounded, by their retiring to die amongst the secluded precipices."+

When the first mission was established in California, nearly two centuries after the discovery of that country, Fathers Piccolo and de Salvatierra found "two sorts of deer that we know nothing of; we call them sheep because they somewhat resemble ours in make. The first sort is as large as a calf of one or two years old; its head is much like that of a stag, and its horns, which are very large, are like those of a ram; its tail and hair are speckled, and shorter than a stag's, but its hoof is large, round, and cleft, as an ox's. I have eaten of these beasts; their flesh is very tender and delicious. The other sort of sheep,

* The Edinburgh College Museum contains a fine specimen of the female Rocky Mountain sheep.

+Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. i. p. 273.

some of which are white, and others black, differ less from ours. They are larger, and have a great deal more wool, which is very good, and easy to be spun and wrought." The animal first mentioned in the above quotation is the Rocky Mountain sheep; the other is the wild-goat of these same districts, of which we shall now exhibit a brief history.+

The Rocky Mountain goat inhabits the highest and least accessible summits. The precise limits of its territorial range have probably not yet been ascertained; but it appears to extend from the fortieth to the sixty-fourth or sixtyfifth degree of north latitude. It is seldom or never observed at any distance from the mountains, and is said to be less numerous on the eastern than the western sides. It was not met with by Mr Drummond on the eastern declivities of the range, near the sources of the Elk River, where the sheep are numerous; but he learned from the Indians, that it frequents the steepest precipices, and is much more difficult to procure than the sheep. On the other hand, Major Long states, from the information of a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, that they are of easy access to the hunter. The flesh of this species is hard and dry, and somewhat unsavoury from its musky flavour. Beneath its long hairy covering there is a coating of wool of the finest quality. "If the Highland Society and the Hudson's Bay Company were to combine their resources of ways and means,' the importation of this fine animal into the Alpine and insular districts of Scotland might be effected without much difficulty or any great expense.”+ The fine wool of this species grows principally on the back and buttock, and is intermixed with long coarse hair.||

* Phil. Trans. No. 318, p. 232.

+ I have elsewhere observed, that in the account of Lewis and Clarke's travels, in the Quarterly Review (vol. xii. pp. 334, 362), there are two passages, which, if not corrected, would lead to an inaccurate conclusion regarding the origin of domestic sheep. See Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. ix. p. 374, Note.

Edinburgh Review, No. 106, p. 353.

The synonymy of this animal is somewhat confused. It is the wool-bearing antelope, Antilope lanigera of Major Hamilton Smith; -the mountain sheep (though distinct from the true Ovis montana) of Jameson and Ord;-the Mazama dorzata et sericea of Rafinesque;-the Rupicapra Americana of De Blainville;-the Antilope Americana of Desmarest;-and the Capra Americana of Richardson.

The bison, or American buffalo (Bos Americanus), is spread over a great portion of the temperate regions of America, and appears to extend southwards probably as far as the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude. Its characteristic positions, however, are the great prairies to the westward of the Mississippi, where, according to Dr Harlan, they sometimes congregate in such vast troops, that 10,000 individuals are supposed to have been seen at one time. Although they inhabited the Carolinas at the period of the earliest colonization, they have long since retired towards the plains of the Missouri. None have been seen in Pennsylvania for a long time, nor in Kentucky since about the year 1766. The influence exerted over the natural boundaries of the brute creation is indeed strikingly illustrated by the geographical history of this species. It appears to have formerly existed throughout the whole extent of the United States, with the possible exception of the territory to the east of Hudson's River and Lake Champlain, and of some narrow lines of coast along the Atlantic shores and the Gulf of Mexico. During the early part of the sixteenth century it was seen by Alvar Nunez near the Bay of St Bernard, which may be regarded as its southern boundary on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain chain. It extends much farther north among the central than the eastern territories; for we find that a bison was killed by Captain Franklin's expedition on the Salt River, in the sixtieth parallel; while it has not been traced to any of those tracts which lie to the northward of Lakes Ontario, Erie, &c., and to the eastward of Lake Superior. Mr Keating states that to the westward of Lake Winipeg the bison is found as far north as the sixty-second degree ;* and Dr Richardson adduces the testimony of the natives to show that they have taken possession of the flat limestone-district of Slave Point, on the north side of Great Slave Lake, and have even wandered as far as the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°. The Rocky Mountain range appears to have formerly opposed a barrier to the westerly progression of the species; but they are said to have discovered of late years a passage across these mountains, near the sources of the Saskatchawan. They

* Account of Major Long's Expedition to the Source of St Peter's River, vol. ii. chap. i.

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