The tracks of mountain sheep often show the cross-step, seldom register, and, as the animals when running have to place their feet where they can, the trail gives no indication of where an animal has been hit. Infinitely greater vigilance is required than in deer hunting to observe the signs at the moment of firing, and in the study of hair and blood.
HOG TRACK; WALKING. (ABOUT HALF NATURAL SIZE)
To save the novice from ridiculous experiences this illustration is given. The hog track is always spread, very seldom registers, and, if the ground is not very hard, the dew-claws are always shown.
The hoof of the bighorn spreads easily and evenly; therefore, in the track the distance between the heels is as great as between the toes, and frequently greater—a fact which makes it impossible to confound it with that of any other animal.
As stated, there is but one sign by which to tell the ram: Size of the track.
THE ANTELOPE
THE track of the antelope looks like a combination of a bighorn track, which it resembles somewhat in length and prominence of the outer rim of the hoof, and that of the domestic sheep, to which it bears a likeness in the shape of the heels. To confound it, however, with either one of them is a rather remote possibility, since the heels are broader and closer together than those of a mountain sheep, with which in the Bad Lands the antelope is sometimes found in the same range, and the spread is different from that of the domestic sheep. In the case of the domestic sheep the greatest spread is at the point of the toes, while in the case of the antelope, the hoof being hooked, it is more between the soles.
An antelope buck of moderate size makes at all times a bigger track than any range sheep, the track of the latter always being rather flat. As antelopes live on the open plains where they are generally hunted by sighting them, and as a sportsman is allowed to kill but one in a season, we will therefore consider only the signs of the old bucks.