Wm B. Richardson 1932 56 General Account Jan. 30, 1937. Big-Horns In Sierra Still Number 2000 Porterville Evening Recorder SACRAMENTO, Jan. 30.—(INS)— Big-horned mountain sheep, wily and fleet rulers of mountain pinacles, have formed herds numbering more than 2,000 in California's high Sierras, statisticians and game ob- servers of the State Department of Natural Resources estimated today. Protected against hunters by law since 1883, when they were reported becoming extinct, number of the sheep has gradually increased to about 2,000 and held stationary at that point during the last decade, Captain E. H. Ober, who directed the survey for the Fish and Game Division believed. The big-horns, sure-footed and fleet, roam over the high Sierras be- tween Mt. Whitney and Death Val- ey, a country almost uninhabited by less hardy animals. They forage for food in crevasses between glaciers and band together for protection against their natural predatory en- emy, the Golden Eagle. Raids on sheep "nests", usually lo- cated amid crags inaccessible to men, by pairs of eagles, a few cas- ualties at the hands of illegal hunt- ers and scarcity of food will probably keep the number of sheep around the 2,000 mark, Ober believed, a le- gal hunting season would quickly reduce them to extinction, he declar- ed. "Recorder" Jan 30th 37