66 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



" above timber on Bull Creek at the first horse 

 feed." 



August 21. After Wolcott and Bettle had 

 started with Dixon on foot, Cutting, Hoyt, and the 

 writer, with Hayden and Baker on horses, went up 

 the canyon about ten miles where we tried to ford 

 the Wolverine, still at flood, with rolling bowlders 

 making dangerous crossing. After several at- 

 tempts we made a successful ford and stopped at 

 the last willow patch to make tea at noon. Cutting 

 and Hayden branched off to the mountains on our 

 right while we continued up the canyon, which be- 

 came narrower and more rocky as we advanced, with 

 frequent pieces of glacial ice five feet thick and about 

 twenty yards long grounded in the gorge. Ahead 

 of us a number of miles we located a single ram on 

 the very top of a high peak that rises above the pass 

 we intended crossing. With the glasses we made 

 him out to be a very large ram, but his back was 

 towards us and, while his horns were immense at the 

 base, we could not look over the points to determine 

 their condition, but made up our minds to attempt 

 a stalk from the pass. 



Arrived at the summit, we left the horses teth- 

 ered to the tundra and began our stalk, which did 

 not seem promising, as the ram was evidently a 

 lonely old sage and had selected his vantage point 

 so he could see us every way we might attempt the 

 ascent, unless we tried to get at him from the rear, 



