ii 4 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



September 1 1. The night was warmer and the next 

 day was fairly clear. Selous went with the men to get 

 his heads, and I returned to the sheep tracks of the day 

 before, about four miles distant from camp. They finally 

 crossed the draw into the timber and through my glasses 

 I could see the spoor leading up the ridges beyond too 

 far to hunt for them and return to camp that day. I 

 then climbed a mountain to the east, and walked through 

 the snow-drifts along the crest, among scattering flocks 

 of ptarmigan, until noon, when I seated myself to take a 

 bit of lunch and also to scan through my field-glasses the 

 new country toward the north. Within an hour, when 

 looking through the glasses across a small basin to some 

 ridges beyond, a white ewe appeared, accompanied by a 

 black lamb. By white I mean that its appearance was as 

 white as that of the sheep of the Kenai Peninsula, though 

 an inspection of its skin would have revealed dark hairs 

 scattered through it. The lamb appeared black, but the 

 color was nearly that of Ovis stonei. They descended 

 with the greatest caution, stopping every few feet to 

 look about, and particularly to gaze into the basin 

 below. 



A very steep slope in front of me fell to a low ridge, 

 and though in plain sight, I carefully slid by degrees to 

 the foot of the slope, stopping motionless every time the 

 ewe looked up, for she had reached the basin and while 

 browsing among the willows, kept watching above as 

 well as in other directions. Proceeding along the ridge 

 to the edge of the basin I hid behind a willow bush about 

 five hundred feet above the ewe, and watched them for a 



