44 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



uously, but often showered. On the mountain crests it 

 was usually very cold all through the day, especially when 

 the wind blew. 



July 21. After breakfasting Rungius, Gage, and I 

 started to get the caribou head. Spahr was to follow 

 with two horses and wait at the foot of the divide for 

 us to bring it down to him. After we reached the sum- 

 mit and were proceeding down the gentle descent, forty 

 or fifty ewes and lambs were seen feeding on a grassy 

 slope of the rough mountain to the north. This was part 

 of the band Rungius and Osgood had disturbed. On 

 the mountain side, several hundred feet up on a bank of 

 snow, we saw a black spot which Rungius thought was 

 an animal. The field-glasses confirmed this, but we 

 could not make out what it was, because it was lying 

 down. It seemed too small for a moose, and its horns 

 could only be suspected. Rungius started forward to 

 stalk it, and went rapidly down the divide, then climbed 

 the side of the mountain and gradually approached the 

 snow-bank. Watching through the glasses I saw the 

 animal rise, stand a few moments, and walk aimlessly a 

 few feet away from the snow, quite unconscious of dan- 

 ger. Soon we heard a shot, then two more, and it fell. 

 It was a yearling cow caribou, and almost black. We 

 gralloched and left it to be brought to camp later by 

 the horses, where Rungius could sketch it. 



We then went through the timber at the lower end of 

 the divide, crossed a ridge and entered a small, deep 

 basin, flushing ptarmigan at short intervals, and climbed 

 a very steep slope opposite the carcass of the caribou, 



