38 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



Back near the high peak I saw the four rams lying down 

 on some high rocks near the top. 



I decided to descend to timber-line a couple of miles 

 down the creek to pass the night, and climb for the rams 

 early the next morning. I soon made a fire on the 

 border of the forest, but there was no water near and it 

 was necessary to descend a long distance to the stream 

 for it. Having done this, and while cutting spruce 

 boughs for a bed, the water on the fire was overturned 

 and a second long trip to the creek was necessary. At 

 midnight I had tea with half the chocolate and half the 

 cracker. It was very cold and my short night was 

 broken by intervals of sleeping and waking. As I fell 

 asleep, the head-net would settle against my face and the 

 mosquitoes would soon wake me. My tobacco had been 

 lost, which was a real deprivation. The memory of the 

 rams moving with virile gameness on the rocky slopes 

 kept lingering between my snatches of sleep, until I rose, 

 at five, and went half a mile down to a stream coming 

 from a canon, which cut the slope I intended to ascend. 



The tea was quickly made from the tea-ball used the 

 night before, and half a cracker and a small piece of 

 chocolate provided my only food that day until late at 

 night. After eating I began to work up the canon, now 

 through deep gorges, now climbing around them, at 

 length coming out at a point where the view was open 

 for half a mile along the stream to the snow cornice, 

 above which the crest continued to rise unevenly to the 

 peak near where the rams had been loitering the evening 

 before. On a steep slope, a hundred feet above the 



