THE FINAL HUNT FOR RAMS 245 



sparrow were common. Occasionally a kingfisher would 

 fly up the creek. 



I was always interested in testing the acute senses of 

 the ground-squirrels. Though I could approach close to 

 them before they plunged into their holes, they always 

 detected my approach long before. Their sense of hear- 

 ing is exceedingly keen, and at any suspicious sound they 

 sit up to look and their sight is as sharp as their hearing. 

 The senses of marmots are equally keen. They have their 

 homes high in the mountains and well up near the heads 

 of the basins. 



In the fall and winter, moose are very abundant among 

 the willows above timber. After a great deal of observa- 

 tion I came to the conclusion that they seldom feed on 

 dwarf-birch, Betula glandulosa. This conclusion I veri- 

 fied by numerous subsequent observations. The willow 

 flats in the draws among the Pelly Mountains are well 

 situated for hunting moose in the fall. These draws are 

 always bordered by clear slopes above, from which the 

 hunter can see the animals. At that time, however, 

 pack-horses, necessary to the transport of their heads, 

 could not subsist, and the hunter would have to remain 

 until November and bring his trophies out with dog- 

 sleds. 



I saw no signs of caribou in those parts of the Pelly 

 Mountains I had tramped over, and the Indians informed 

 me that they do not range anywhere in the Pellys. I did, 

 however, see one old track on a bar near the lower end 

 of the Lapie. An occasional caribou must at times stray 

 across the country. 



