64 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



purpose of examining the lower ranges south of the 

 divide. I particularly wanted to climb the farther peaks 

 above the rolling country. Bear diggings were numerous 

 everywhere, in the basins and on the slopes. We climbed 

 along the broken rock on the west side of the high lime- 

 stone mountain (which I had ascended after leaving 

 Rungius and Gage several days before), and circled 

 around it to the crest on the other side where the chain 

 continues to the south, and there seated ourselves to 

 look over the country. 



While scanning a partly snow-covered range of dark, 

 iron-stained rock, almost black in appearance, there 

 came into the field of my glasses a band of sixteen bull 

 caribou, their manes glistening white in contrast to the 

 black rock of the slope above the snow on which they were 

 standing. Their bodies appeared black in strong relief, 

 although nearly three miles away, and their wide, branch- 

 ing antlers were clearly visible, like small dead tree tops. 

 All stood motionless with heads hanging down, like the 

 single bull I had seen near there a few days before. 

 Here was an opportunity for Rungius to study them in 

 life, and he quickly started. As he passed out of sight 

 below, I watched the caribou. Now and then a few 

 would move off the snow to feed, but they quickly came 

 back, and soon two or three were lying down on it. 



Then I went on along the crest of the range and 

 after climbing a peak noticed a dead animal on the snow 

 in the bottom of a ravine and soon found it to be a dead 

 caribou bull. It was the one I had shot at and thought I 

 had missed. It had been shot through the stomach and 



