ii8 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



and leading to the timber on the other side. Continuing, 

 I reached the next mountain, and ascended its peak after 

 working my way upward among boulders and coarse, 

 broken rock, the spaces between them filled with snow 

 which caused many falls and bruises. Later, the snow 

 ceased and the clouds began to rise so that I could look 

 over on the slopes of a high, massive mountain still far- 

 ther to the west, and separated from me by a deep valley. 

 There, well up near the crest, I saw through my field- 

 glasses, nine sheep, apparently ewes and lambs. The 

 rain again began to fall, so, returning along the ridge and 

 reaching the foot at dark, I struggled for three miles 

 back to camp. Ptarmigan were very abundant on the 

 mountains south of the meadows, and a flock of migrat- 

 ing robins had passed over me. 



Selous had been out all day without seeing any game, 

 and since we had exhausted the country within available 

 walking distance from camp, we decided to move the 

 next day near the meadows I had crossed in the morn- 

 ing. Rain fell all night and still more all the next day. 

 We endured it, sitting under the shelter. It grew colder 

 the next night and the following day broke clear. 



September 15. We made up our packs, climbed the 

 ridge, and proceeded along the mountain-slope to the 

 meadows. After crossing them, a camping site was 

 found a hundred yards up a slope, in the timber near 

 the sheep-trail which I had followed two days before. 

 It rained at intervals as we were "packing" over to the 

 new camping place, and it was snowing as we made it, 

 but the snow soon ceased falling. 



