ices, and alight on his big
horns. I know only two hunters who claim to have actually witnessed this
feat; I never was so fortunate. They describe the act as a diving
head-foremost. The horns are so large at the base that they cover the
upper portion of the head down nearly to a level with the eyes, and the
skull is exceedingly strong. I struck an old, bleached specimen on Mount
Ritter a dozen blows with my ice-ax without breaking it. Such skulls
would not fracture very readily by the wildest rock-diving, but other
bones could hardly be expected to hold together in such a performance;
and the mechanical difficulties in the way of controlling their
movements, after striking upon an irregular surface, are, in themselves,
sufficient to show this boulder-like method of progression to be
impossible, even in the absence of all other evidence on the subject;
moreover, the ewes follow wherever the rams may lead, although their
horns are mere spikes. I have found many pairs of the horns of the old
rams considerably battered, doubtless a result of fighting. I was
particularly interested in the question, after witnessing the
performances of this San Joaquin band upon the glaciated rocks at the
foot of the falls; and as soon as I procured specimens and examined
their feet, all the mystery disappeared. The secret, considered in
connection with exceptionally strong muscles, is simply this: the wide
posterior portion of the bottom of the foot, instead of wearing down and
becoming flat and hard, like the feet of tame sheep and horses, bulges
out in a soft, rubber-like pad or cushion, which not only grips and
holds well on smooth rocks, but fits into small cavities, and down upon
or against slight protuberances. Even the hardest portions of the edge
of the hoof are comparatively soft and elastic; furthermore, the toes
admit of an extraordinary amount of both lateral and vertical movement,
allowing the foot to accommodate itself still more perfectly to the
irregularities of rock surfaces, while at the same time increasing the
gripping power.

At the base of Sheep Rock, one of the winter strongholds of the Shasta
flocks, there lives a stock-raiser who has had the advantage of
observing the movements of wild sheep every winter; and, in the course
of a conversation with him on the subject of their diving habits, he
pointed to the front of a lava headland about 150 feet high, which is
only eight or ten degrees out of the perpendicular. "Ther