84 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



very large, but the brow points, instead of being 

 palmated, consisted of two very unsightly straight 

 prongs, which saved his life, as the writer did not 

 care for the head. The old fellow stood facing us 

 for five minutes, trying with quivering nostrils to 

 get our wind; as we went forward he went off on 

 our right and disappeared, but returned again for 

 a look at us at close range, which procedure he 

 repeated a number of times until we lost him in the 

 darkness. For ten miles we stumbled along through 

 the canyon on the difficult bowlder-strewn course, 

 until we decided we must be near the timber to which 

 Wright had promised to move camp. We shouted 

 singly and as a trio, but received no answering call, 

 so continued our painful course along the gorge for 

 several miles where we indulged in further pro- 

 longed and useless shouting. There was nothing 

 left except to climb out of the gorge and make for 

 the place we had left Wright in the morning, so we 

 made our way in the dark up four hundred feet to 

 the tundra-covered bench and then stumbled along 

 two miles to our willow patch camp, only to find 

 that Wright had left. Somewhere down at timber 

 along the creek we knew Wright must be waiting 

 with a good fire and a supply of grub which we 

 needed badly, as our feet were cold and sore, our 

 bodies cold, wet, and weary and our hunger was the 

 mountain-climbing variety that is only satisfied by 

 numerous pounds of meat. Across the tundra we 



