"The two men who found these skulls were both good mountain men and they both believe that this was a place where a lion lay and killed his food as the sheep passed along the trail under the rock.
"There's another interesting thing about sheep that most people don't know. A sheep is awful easy tamed, especially if you get him young. I knew of one owned by a man in Salt Lake, caught when a little lamb and as tame as any dog. He was good-natured and liked to be petted. He spent most of his time lying on the roof of the house, but sometimes he'd jump down and feed in the yard and sometimes go quite a way along the street. Sometimes the dogs would chase him and he'd come back as hard as he could pelt, and then jump up on the roof, where he was safe.
"I once knew an Indian that had a lamb that was perfectly tame and was not afraid of the Indian dogs around the house. This Indian lived in a cabin and was always complaining about the sheep because it would jump up on the windowsill, sometimes breaking a light of glass out of the window.
"You take a young sheep, though, and tame him and let him grow up into a big ram and he isn't afraid of anything and is likely to get real cross; and I expect that a big ram can hit a terrible blow with those horns of his.
"I reckon there are sheep found all the way up and down the mountains, maybe from the Arctic to Mexico. I've heard of a white sheep up North and of a black one, and I've been told that sheep were plenty down in the hot desert country in California and Arizona, but I never have been down there and don't know anything about them. They say that down there they kill 'em by watching the water holes."
"I suppose," said Jack, "that there are not many sheep found on the prairie now, are there?"
"No," replied Hugh, "I guess there are very few, if any at all. You see the prairie is getting covered with cattle now, and where there are cattle there are cowboys, and the cowboys don't like anything better than the fun of chasing and roping any wild animal that they come across.
"A sheep don't bear chasing very well. If they get much harried in any place, they get up and move away to where they think they'll be safer."
By this time the sun had set and it was quite dark. The roar of the snowslides, heard less and less frequently as the air grew cooler, had now ceased, and before very long Hugh smoked a final pipe, and advised all hands to turn in.