te hair of the rump patch
into a large, flat, snow-white disc which shines in the sun, and
shows afar as a bright white spot.

[Illustration: XX. Near Yellowstone Gate: (a) Antelope _Photo by F. Jay
Haynes_
(b) Captive Wolf _Photo by E. T. Seton_]

[Illustration: XXI. Mountain Sheep on Mt. Evarts
_Photo by E. T. Seton_]

This action is momentary or very brief; the spread disc goes down again
in a few seconds. The flash is usually a signal of danger, although it
answers equally well for a recognition mark.

In 1897 the Antelope in the Park were estimated at 1,500. Now they have
dwindled to about one third of that, and, in spite of good protection,
continue to go down. They do not flourish when confined even in a large
area, and we have reason to fear that one of the obscure inexorable laws
of nature is working now to shelve the Antelope with the creatures that
have passed away. A small band is yet to be seen wintering on the
prairie near Gardiner.

THE RESCUED BIGHORN

At one time the Bighorn abounded along all the rivers where there was
rough land as far east as the western edge of the Dakotas, westerly to
the Cascades, and in the mountains from Mexico and Southern California
to Alaska.

In one form or another the Mountain Sheep covered this large region, and
it is safe to say that in the United States alone their numbers were
millions. But the dreadful age of the repeating rifle and lawless
skin-hunter came on, till the end of the last century saw the Bighorn in
the United States reduced to a few hundreds; they were well along the
sunset trail.

But the New York Zooelogical Society, the Camp Fire Club, and other
societies of naturalists and sportsmen, bestirred themselves mightily.
They aroused all thinking men to the threatening danger of extinction;
good laws were passed and then enforced. The danger having been
realized, the calamity was averted, and now the Sheep are on the
increase in many parts of the West.

During the epoch of remorseless destruction the few survivors were the
wildest of wild things; they would not permit the approach of a man
within a mile. But our new way of looking at the Bighorn has taught them
a new way of looking at us, as every traveller in Colorado or the
protected parts of Wyoming will testify.

In 1897 I spent several months rambling on the upper ranges of the
Yellowstone Park, and I saw not a single Sheep, although it was
estimated that there were nearly a hundred of