X IN THE SHEEP COUNTRY 187 



along the coast that the bears are so thick on the island that 

 several parties of prospectors have been hunted off the 

 place by them. Vein said he only saw two or three during 

 his stay there. He can truthfully lay claim to being the 

 man who sent out of Alaska the world's record moose-head, 

 of which mention is made elsewhere. 



On the following morning Pitka begged me to attempt 

 the sides of the mountain near the glacier, and though not 

 relishing the idea at all I left camp very early to try it. We 

 had a long and arduous bit of climbing, and at last the men 

 got me into a bit of country where I absolutely could go no 

 farther. They tried hard to induce me to cross another 

 very steep rock-slide, on nothing but a very sketchy kind of 

 sheep-trail, which, not having four legs, I refused to try. 

 Simeon held out an extra inducement by saying, " If you 

 scared to walk, me pack you over." I was even more scared 

 to risk that. Having seen no sheep I decided to return to 

 camp. Pitka said, " Give me the rifle, me go catch 'um big- 

 horns." Secretly hoping that he would fail in the attempt, 

 I gave him the rifle and told him if he could locate any 

 sheep on fairly easy ground not to shoot, as I would try to 

 get there next day. It was late in the evening before the 

 two natives returned to camp, very tired, hungry, and 

 disgusted, as they said they had been miles all along the 

 sides of the glacier, over very bad ground, and had not seen 

 one single big ram. 



Next morning early, Simeon came to my tent and said, 

 " Pitka, he very bad." Suspecting it to be mumps, I went 

 over to the tent and found Pitka looking very woeful with a 

 swollen face. He said, " My face he hurt like hell. No can 

 eat nothing. Pretty soon me die, I guess." He was terribly 

 frightened, in spite of my assurances that I would pull him 



