CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 127 



I supposed, as a matter of course, my shot had 

 gone wide of the mark, so without comment Albert 

 and myself went back to our raisin course. We had 

 just finished that and were about to skin out the 

 dead ram beside us, when twelve more rams with 

 magnificent heads came out of the canyon and ap- 

 proached within two hundred yards before they dis- 

 covered us. Having no more ammunition, we 

 simply watched them while they rambled off at an 

 unhurried pace, and then turned our attention to 

 dressing our neglected ram. 



I said to Albert, " Rather rotten luck to be out 

 of cartridges with such fine rams coming right up 

 to be killed without doing any climbing after them; 

 and, besides, I really wanted a third head." Albert 

 stopped his skinning operation, lighted his pipe, and 

 said: "You speak him same thing," so I was 

 obliged to repeat my observation. The Indian be- 

 gan to count on his fingers and, holding up three 

 brown digits for my inspection, informed me: 

 " Him kill one ram big other time, him kill two 

 ram big this time." I didn't care to argue the mat- 

 ter with the Indian, as he had a bad-looking skin- 

 ning knife in his hand, but after he had gone back 

 to his mutton I told him that Hoyt had killed the 

 second ram back on the mountain; then Albert be- 

 gan to grin and, taking my arm, led me to the place 

 from which I had fired my last shot at the rams that 

 had gone over the ridge, and rather impressively 



