CHAPTER IV 



THE FINAL STALK 1904 



August 2. We rose late, to find the sun brightly 

 shining. Rungius soon started to look at his caribou 

 carcass; Osgood and Gage went to get the meat of Os- 

 good's ram. I stood near the fire for a few moments 

 after they had left, and was gazing at the high mountains 

 three miles or more distant, east of the north branch of 

 Coal Creek, where I intended to hunt, when I saw up 

 near the top what appeared to be sheep whitish spots 

 against the dark background of the slope. My glasses 

 showed six sheep, not clearly visible, but looking like 

 rams. 



It was a little after mid-day, and in five minutes I had 

 started down the creek flushing ptarmigan and disturbing 

 ground-squirrels on the way, while red spruce squirrels 

 scampered and frisked about. After passing rapidly 

 along the well-beaten moose trail until near the forks, I 

 again looked through the glasses. Yes, they were rams, 

 nine in all, apparently, with fair horns, and the horns of 

 one, which was feeding to the right a short distance from 

 the others, seemed to be particularly large. 



They were on the west face of a high, rugged mountain, 



about a mile broad, with very steep, green slopes extending 



72 



