Is that true, Luce ?" "Both the Indians and trappers affirm it, and intelligent travellers have believed them.

Whether it be true or not is a question among naturalists, that remains to be cleared up.

It is certain that they can leap downward for a very great distance--that they can alight on the narrowest shelves of a precipice without a hoof slipping--that they can spring across fearful chasms, and run swiftly along ledges where a dog or a wolf would not dare to venture.

Indeed, they seem to delight in such situations--as if it gave them a pleasure to court danger, just as a school-boy likes to luxuriate in perilous feats of agility." "Are these the same that are called `big-horns' by the hunters ?" demanded Francois.
"The same," answered Lucien; "`cimmaron' is the name given by the Spaniards--the earliest explorers of these regions.

Naturalists have named them `argali,' from their resemblance to the argali (_Ovis ammon_), or wild sheep of Europe.