2 i6 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



then took the entire skin of the second. This was much 

 whiter than the others whiter than the type of Ovis 

 fannini. Both the others were darker and approached 

 more closely the type of Ovis stonei. The neck of the 

 light one was pure white, those of the others were so full 

 of dark hairs as to have a more grayish appearance. 



Before the skin was off the rain began again. Stowing 

 both the skin and the head in my rucksack and ascending 

 to the crest, I struggled down the slope and reached camp 

 late at night. 



July 30. Early in the morning, while I was preparing 

 the head and fleshing the skin, Jefferies looked back on 

 the mountain-side and saw two sheep. Through my 

 field-glasses, I saw that they were the same two young 

 rams which had passed in the opposite direction the day 

 before. They had not found their band, and were slowly 

 returning along the same slope. 



After hanging the skin, we drank some tea and set 

 out for the dead rams, toiling slowly up the slope I had 

 descended the night before. Old bear diggings were 

 everywhere, but the bear which had been seen on the 

 snow-bank was the only one observed in the Pelly Moun- 

 tains. Looking up we saw two golden eagles circling in 

 the air above the carcasses. 



Reaching the dead rams we learned the cause of the 

 shattering of the lower jaw of the last ram killed the day 

 before a fact that had puzzled me. When I fired the 

 first shot, the three large rams were lying close together, 

 and the sun, shining directly in my eyes, had so confused 

 my vision that, in aiming at the shoulder of the first ram, 



