CHAPTER XIV 



CLIMBING FOR WHITE SHEEP 



IT rained considerably during the first night we slept 

 in Steve's cabin and the roof leaked, but this was 

 only a trifling inconvenience. 



By the time we had finished repairing the gun Alex 

 and Fritz arrived with the stove and more provisions, 

 including four ptarmigan which they had shot with the 

 .22 rifle. 



Bill and I spent the afternoon looking for sheep. On 

 this first excursion we did not cross the river but climbed 

 an old trail directly out from the cabin to the first row of 

 benches, which were here about a thousand feet above 

 the river bed. When we had emerged from the spruce 

 and Cottonwood forest — for the cabin was situated just 

 within the upper limit of the timber line — the going 

 became difficult through the alders in the ravines. But 

 we followed an old trail up one of the beds of the streams 

 which here flowed down steeply and gained the top of a 

 rocky knoll, commanding a considerable view. We saw 

 signs of black bear and numerous white-tailed and rock 

 ptarmigan before reaching the lookout. Our little hill 

 was a spur from the side of the higher mountain and 

 enabled us to see five or six miles up the valley of the 

 Killey River as far as the Bear Glacier from which the 

 river issued. About two miles farther up than we were 

 standing a fine cataract plunged through a very narrow, 

 rocky gorge. The snow line was drawn at an altitude 



(217) 



