CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 81 



Natazhat sharply silhouetted keeps watch and ward 

 over the silent wastes. 



August 24. Very cold and clear. It was ar- 

 ranged that Wright should take the horses and move 

 down Count Creek to make camp at the first timber, 

 while we hunt on foot through the mountains up to- 

 ward the glacier. Climbing among the mountains 

 two miles from camp we located over two hundred 

 sheep, all of them ewes and lambs variously en- 

 gaged; some of them strung out along the slopes 

 feeding, others huddled together resting. Beyond 

 the sheep were several herds of caribou numbering 

 fifty in all, but with no large heads, so we did not 

 disturb any of the game and simply continued our 

 gentle exercise of climbing up and down the moun- 

 tains until noontide found us low down on the bench 

 just above the canyon at the foot of the glacier. 

 Here we found a band of twenty ewes and lambs 

 feeding on the grass at the foot of the mountain; 

 they did not have our wind and watched us until we 

 came within seventy-five feet, when they made off 

 at an unfrightened pace, frequently stopping to look 

 at us. About three hundred yards ahead was a band 

 of six rams with good heads, feeding at our level; 

 the fleeing ewes, however, alarmed the rams and 

 caused them to move closer to the base of the moun- 

 tains, and as there was no cover for a stalk we went 

 down into the canyon in hope of working around 

 the rams. 



