Eagles and
coyotes, no doubt, capture an unprotected lamb at times, or some
unfortunate beset in deep, soft snow, but these cases are little more
than accidents. So, also, a few perish in long-continued snow-storms,
though, in all my mountaineering, I have not found more than five or six
that seemed to have met their fate in this way. A little band of three
were discovered snow-bound in Bloody Canon a few years ago, and were
killed with an ax by mountaineers, who chanced to be crossing the range
in winter.
Man is the most dangerous enemy of all, but even from him our brave
mountain-dweller has little to fear in the remote solitudes of the High
Sierra. The golden plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin were lately
thronged with bands of elk and antelope, but, being fertile and
accessible, they were required for human pastures. So, also, are many of
the feeding-grounds of the deer--hill, valley, forest, and meadow--but
it will be long before man will care to take the highland castles of the
sheep. And when we consider here how rapidly entire species of noble
animals, such as the elk, moose, and buffalo, are being pushed to the
very verge of extinction, all lovers of wildness will rejoice with me in
the rocky security of _Ovis montana_, the bravest of all the Sierra
mountaineers.
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