. Campfires on desert and lava . n, a few pioneers of Ovis have been seenat a point on the mainland opposite Tiburon Lower California it exists more than half-waydown the peninsula. To the zoologist, the vanishingpoint of a great mammalian genus, with a range thathalf encircles the globe, is an interesting field for obser-vation. For all present purposes at least, we may say that atPinacate the genus Ovis is finally vanquished by the greatdesert barrier known as the Sonoran Region, where theheat is fiercest, the food is scarcest and the water supplyis either very scanty, or non-exist
. Campfires on desert and lava . n, a few pioneers of Ovis have been seenat a point on the mainland opposite Tiburon Lower California it exists more than half-waydown the peninsula. To the zoologist, the vanishingpoint of a great mammalian genus, with a range thathalf encircles the globe, is an interesting field for obser-vation. For all present purposes at least, we may say that atPinacate the genus Ovis is finally vanquished by the greatdesert barrier known as the Sonoran Region, where theheat is fiercest, the food is scarcest and the water supplyis either very scanty, or non-existent. We have be-fore this seen, and attempted to set forth, the Big-Hornspecies (0. canadensis) at its culminating point, in south-eastern British Columbia. Judge, then, the interest withwhich we hunted, shot, dissected and preserved adultspecimens of the same species at the point where it throwsup the sponge to the torrid terrors of the Sonoran what did we find ? In the first place, the Mountain Sheep of Pinacate is. •^ Q o>-< iJ - ^ O C CIh 1) tu •r-; r; ^ THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP OF MEXICO 331 the straight, old-fashioned Big-Horn—Ovis canadensis—no more and no less. This makes it far more interestingthan if it had already differentiated, through isolation, intoa new form. Those animals are now so nearly isolatedthat structural changes, reproduced by the inbreeding thatundoubtedly is going on, are hard at work upon them,attempting to mould them into a different form from thetypical parent stock. By reason of a very scanty food supply in the dryseasons, little water, long periods of thirst and undoubtedsuffering from the fierce heat of summer, the Big-Horn ofPinacate is to-day distinctly smaller than his brothers inWyoming, Montana and British Columbia. His hair isvery short, thin and stiff; his feet are much smaller; histail is very long (ten caudal vertebrae) and ridiculouslyshort-haired; his weight is from fifty to seventy-five poundsunder the northern a
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