WeiIt on, Ariz. March 15th
(1916)
Dear Dr. Terri am:
I have just returned from a very hard hunt for sheep in the Ft. of El Rosario (see hook by Carl Lumholz, "New Trails in Mexico”). This Tt. is parallel with the Gila Range--12 miles distant a flat desert between with six or seven miles of soft sand dunes. The part of the mountain which is large enough for sheep is five miles long, of the rought honey comb type, fifteen to seventeen hundred feet high.
ot a_ drop of water is in the wvole Tt. There is not cactus on or mear ot/ Vegetation is scarce, also birdand comparatively lizzards. The nearest water is 20 miles away in the Giles, Of course in the past it has been visited by prospectors, but very rarely and not for years. There are no signs of anybody Having been there. Lumholz rode a horse around it and reported sheep tracks . This report induced me to go there, knowing that if there were sheep on the Tt. they would be tvoes of long isolation, inbreeding, and sheep that had adapted themselves to living without water other than that obtained from the axarce rains and the vegetation. I rode over them in three days from the railroad, packed water from the Gila range and remained alone for eight days in climbing the crags and hunting for hseep, which I soon found existed there but only a very few, perhaos not more than five or six, certainly less than ten. At the North end I saw a ewe and lamb. At the South end I saw a mature ram. No other fresh signs of sheep on the whole Ft.. I understood the needle-in-the-haystack idea in vunting high along the crest for the raft,., and finally killed it. Also I picked up 8 mature bleached skull of a ewe. As I expected, the ra^ is an example of the conditions. I think also the ewe is likewise. The ram is a dwarf? the smallest I have ever seen in the U. S. or Alaska. Its skull is very much smaller than the skulls of the Gila Range and
Boone and Crockett Club Records (Mss 738), Archives and Special Collections. Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library. University of Montana-Missoula.
-2-
shows marked differences in character. T have Gila skulls here for comparison. I think the ewe will show proportionate differences.
Therefore ton SI Rosario v/e have sheep the smallest in America, owing probably to the causs I have suggested.
Th ether you would record this fact in specific terms, I do not know--But I ould appreciate it, if you will examine the sheep, and if you Relieve the differe .ces warrant the description, that you oersonally should describe it. At least you will be mucv interested in it. I will send you tve bod; measurements from New ''ork where I will arrive as soon as you receive this letter. I think that in view of my efforts successfully to get these sheep, that Nelson should make a soeclal effort to have the skull cleaned quickly and the skin tanned.
Sincerely yours,
(signed) C. Sheldon
#(Recd. and Ackd. March 2r, 1916)
Boone and Crockett Club Records (Mss 738), Archives and Special Collections. Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library. University of Montana-Missoula.
