106 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



but, by reason of the very difficulties, is the king of 

 sports, to which no other hunting compares. The 

 situation in which we found ourselves was exactly a 

 case in point, as the sheep had chosen their vantage 

 point on a peak, to which with much labor and energy 

 we certainly could climb, but which we could not 

 even approach without being seen by the wary ani- 

 mals. We did not even dare to climb up in front 

 of them for the purpose of alarming them, because 

 we wished to hunt for sheep on the peaks back of 

 this particular band, and to stampede these would 

 have been to stampede others on the rear peaks. 



There were but two alternatives left us in this 

 situation : either to abandon our hunt, or to sit down 

 where we were in the hope that the rams would run 

 over to another peak where a stalk would be pos- 

 sible; we sat down to play a waiting game with the 

 sheep. While these rams held us inactive, the 

 writer amused himself by counting the sheep on the 

 mountain slopes across the river, on the same side 

 as our willow-patch camp and about three miles 

 above it. There was not a ram among the band 

 that dotted the slopes, but counting them singly, 

 that is: "one, two, three, etc.," and not guessing, 

 the writer had reached five hundred and thirty-one 

 ewes and lambs when he decided to stop counting, 

 as other bands began to come over the snow crests 

 and swell the multitude. 



After two hours' waiting the rams disappeared 



