ON THE SHEEP RANGES 23 



fork, with the intention of reaching the divide if possi- 

 ble. The creek, fifteen to thirty feet wide, descended 

 so abruptly that the source could not be far off. There 

 were very few moose tracks so far up the creek, but sev- 

 eral ptarmigan were flushed, some with young, and red- 

 squirrels kept chattering as they skipped about. The 

 tinkling notes of the water-ousel often sounded from the 

 creek, and once the exquisite harlequin duck was seen 

 floating down among the rocks in the foaming torrent. We 

 had seen harlequin ducks all the way along the creek, 

 and I have since come to associate these beautiful birds 

 with wild, dashing, northern streams. The walking was 

 excellent and, two miles up, the stream forked again, 

 one branch coming from a basin to the south-west, the 

 other from the west. Just below this junction was a 

 canon, two hundred feet long, filled with snow and ice. 

 I walked through it and found myself at the limit of 

 timber, mosquitoes still swarming about me. Farther up 

 the west fork I saw the diggings and fairly fresh dung of 

 a grizzly, and a mile and a half farther on the creek 

 broke out from vast, bare, rolling hills on the south, fed 

 by numerous streams formed from the melting snow 

 above the canons and deep ravines. Here at last was 

 the divide. From the summit could be seen the waters 

 flowing into the Tatonduk River, or Sheep Creek as it 

 is locally called, where it enters the Yukon River, 

 below Eagle City. Coal Creek has its sources in the 

 numerous small streams flowing together, all formed 

 from melting snow in the surrounding mountains. 



The divide at this point was covered with green, rolling 



