ON THE SHEEP RANGES 25 



ful scrutiny proved them to be ewes. My first sight of 

 the northern mountain-sheep! At last we were in the 

 sheep ranges! As we had eaten no good meat except a 

 few grouse and ptarmigan for eight days, and our bacon 

 was being rapidly consumed, I immediately began a stalk, 

 walking as rapidly as possible down the west slope of the 

 divide on soft mossy ground, in some places miry and 

 filled with willows. Now and then I paused to watch the 

 sheep, which kept feeding quietly in the same place. At 

 the northern end of the spur, then opposite me, the slope 

 breaks, forming a cliff several hundred feet high, trav- 

 ersing the end of the mountain east and west. This cliff 

 curves at the eastern extremity, cutting the smooth slope 

 which, at the brink, rises steeply in a succession of benches 

 to the top of the spur-mountain. The spur encloses a 

 beautiful basin of rolling meadows in an amphitheatre of 

 mountains. 



I started to climb at the west edge of the cliffs, thereby 

 keeping out of sight of the sheep. After climbing per- 

 haps three hundred feet I looked up under the precipice, 

 and at its base suddenly saw a grizzly bear walking on 

 some snow toward the curving cliff, where it cuts the east 

 slope. Quickly dropping, I almost slid to the foot, 

 where I could conceal myself in the willows along the 

 stream flowing from the basin. As the bear proceeded, I 

 advanced parallel with it for about a hundred yards, 

 until it climbed over a steep snow-bank to the top of the 

 cliff and stood on the edge of the east slope. As it 

 ascended this snow-bank I noticed a small cub playing 

 about it. It was then 10 P. M. The bear stood for a 



