230 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



killed our first ram, indeed, we lived on mutton for 

 days afterwards, the supply seemed inexhaustible. 

 Two days of drenching rain followed, a real distress 

 in so exposed a spot. Then hail and icy winds, which 

 blew our meagre fire this way and that. We moved 

 to a sheltered cave, an ideal camp, which had passed 

 unnoticed before, and had a real drying of everything. 



We planned a great campaign, and agreed to 

 separate for the day, taking a man each, leaving the 

 tents to see after themselves. My route lay over vast 

 pyramids of Titanic rocks, down gigantic masses of 

 contorted glacier country, and so at last to a series 

 of terraced plateaus over which I could keep watch 

 and ward. Hours I waited, silent and inert, numbed 

 by the cold, hoping that the bunch of sheep I had in 

 view might give me just the smallest chance. So 

 wary were they that I had not been able to approach 

 within striking distance. In a clatter of stones a fresh 

 lot of sheep suddenly rushed joyously towards me. 

 Down the terrible gorges they clattered, easily, out of 

 range as yet. Ah, they have winded me ! They 

 rush downwards, change their minds ; they come, they 

 come towards me ! Now, now or never ! Phut ! 

 The bullet told. Over went the foremost ram, and 

 for an instant I thought he would die where he fell. 

 Gaining an impetus he rolled over and over, poised 

 for a second on the edge of a mighty ravine his 

 silhouetted form hung for the fraction of a second, 

 and then was gone. 



Afire with eagerness I slid and pushed and tumbled 

 my way to the depths below, where I searched and 



