ON THE SHEEP RANGES 31 



Leaving the men to pitch the tents and make camp, 

 Rungius and I went on to the divide. From there I could 

 see the bear's carcass and, thinking the cub might remain 

 near it, pointed it out to Rungius, who started to find and 

 kill the cub. I went to climb a mountain on the south, to 

 make a short reconnaissance and descend on the other 

 side to camp. The top was a broad, level flat, rather 

 swampy, and full of sheep and caribou tracks. Old cari- 

 bou tracks covered the ground, and well-worn sheep-trails 

 extended high up on the slopes, ridges, crests, and over 

 or around all the peaks. Several small birds, unknown 

 to me, were about, and the mice, a species known as 

 Microtus operarius endcecus, had made their tiny trails 

 all through the grass. Conies, Ochotona collaris, were 

 heard and seen among the broken rocks of the slopes. 

 Their short, thin bleat afterward became a familiar sound 

 high up among the large broken rocks which they inhabit, 

 even on the mountain tops. And numerous marmots 

 were whistling their long, piercing calls. They were 

 abundant everywhere, near broken rock and in the 

 basins. 



Passing a little beyond I looked down on the large 

 basin south of our camp, from which the other stream 

 flows to make the junction. The divide creek and this 

 one form the true source of Coal Creek, the volume of 

 which is increased by the two large creeks entering two 

 or three miles below. The area below me really consisted 

 of two basins: one farther to the east, between two 

 precipitous spurs; the other likewise lying in mountains, 

 and much larger. At the bottom of the former were two 



