200 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



in more rugged outlines than those of the Ogilvies, and 

 has given to them the same rich, contrasting colorations. 

 It has carved even more beautiful basins among them, 

 and filled them with the same kind of exquisite crystal 

 lakes fed by melting snow. The same richly colored flora 

 carpets the slopes. 



I was about to climb among these wonderful moun- 

 tains, and keeping close to the creek which headed in the 

 east basin, where numerous graylings lay at the bottom 

 of the pools, I saw, floating down among the riffles, two 

 harlequin ducks, those exquisite creatures which adorn 

 the dancing mountain creeks. The dense willow brush 

 and dwarf-birches so impeded walking that it required 

 an hour to go two and a half miles to the head of the 

 basin. It was hot and sultry and a light haze hung 

 about the crests. Again I was walking over emerald- 

 green pastures in an amphitheatre of mountains, with 

 ground-squirrels running about in all directions, while 

 above me two golden eagles wheeled in flight. 



Beginning to climb a mountain on the west side of the 

 basin, I was surprised to see a chipmunk picking up some 

 kind of morsels among the rocks. Soon I was cheered 

 by reaching a sheep-trail leading up the slope, and, fol- 

 lowing it, I at length reached the top, 6,900 feet altitude, 

 according to my barometer. 



For the first time the glories of the Pellys were spread 

 out before me high, ragged ranges shooting up into the 

 sky in all directions, the vision lost in a sea of peaks. No 

 wind, not even a distant sound disturbed the silence. 



The western face of the mountain fell in sheer cliffs 



