IN THE ALASKA- YUKON GAMELANDS 



laid down, then collapsed and rolled off the ledge, 

 bounding over several precipices in his drop. 



I shouted so Harry and Cap would know, but 

 this was unnecessary as they had watched the 

 whole stalk from start to finish and gave back a 

 welcoming cheer. I couldn't see him after he 

 landed, as he lay in a gulch hidden by sharp 

 projections, but I knew he was too far away and 

 too hard to reach for me to go and disembowel 

 him. Cap had warned us before that, in order 

 to get safely across the glacier by dark, it would 

 be necessary to descend the mountain and reach 

 the horses by 4 o'clock — and it was now past 4. 



We reached the horses just before 6, having 

 joined another contingent of our party on the 

 way down the mountain. Rogers was very weak, 

 having gone without lunch. We had warned 

 him that he would need it on such a hard climb, 

 but with an indifferent, "Oh, I never eat lunch 

 in the hills," he sauntered away without the 

 mid-day snack. But we all noticed that our 

 taxidermist not only always carried a lunch after 

 that, but that he ravenously devoured it as well. 

 After joining the rest of our party we learned that 

 Billy Wooden had also killed a goat, presum- 

 ably a billy, which was dropped in a very in- 

 accessible gulch too precipitous to negotiate that 

 day owing to the lateness of the hour. We 

 reached camp at 8:30 p. m., after being two and 

 a half hours on the ice field. 



It wasn't a very difficult matter, for those of 



66 



