condition of the grass and the supply of water. In a dry season many
of the small springs cease to flow at an early date in the summer.
Moreover, if a flock is kept too long in one locality, the grass is
almost destroyed by close cropping, forcing the abandonment of that
particular place for two or three years. When this occurs, the place
will recover and the grass become good again if left entirely
undisturbed for several years.

The usual practice is to take the flocks up into the mountains or on
the high plateaus during the summer, quartering them near some spring or
small stream, and when the snow comes they are moved down to the lower
foothills or out into the valleys. In the winter both shepherds and
sheep depend on the snow for their water supply, and by this means an
immense tract of country, which otherwise would be a perfect waste,
is utilized. As the snow disappears from the valleys the flocks are
gradually driven back again into the mountains.

The heavy fall of snow in the mountains and its slow melting in spring
makes that region far more fertile and grassy than the valleys, and were
it possible to remain there throughout the year doubtless many families
would do so. As it is, however, the feed is covered too deeply for the
sheep to reach it, and during several months heavy snowdrifts make
communication very difficult and at times impossible. In a few favored
localities--usually small, well-sheltered valleys here and there in the
mountains--some families may remain throughout the winter, but as a
rule, at the first approach of the cold season and before the first snow
flies there is a general exodus to the low-lying valleys and the low
mesa regions, and the mountains are practically abandoned for a time.

During the rainy season pools and little lakes of water are formed all