CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 73 



with Dixon to look for sheep up near the glacier 

 where Bettle fought the ram and drowned him. 

 They have climbed hard all day and located many 

 ewes and lambs, but not -a single ram. At this time 

 of year it is very rare to find any rams with a band 

 of ewe sheep ; occasionally an old solitary ram is 

 found in splendid isolation with no companions, but 

 almost invariably the rams are found in small bands 

 of five to fifteen in number, and in such bands the 

 members will usually be found to be the same age. 

 Almost never are young rams three or four years 

 old found in company with seven- or eight-year-old 

 rams, but each keeps in its own set. 



While scanning the snowy sky line two miles op- 

 posite our camp in hope of locating some rams, we 

 descried a bull caribou lying down on the slope 

 within a hundred feet of the very top of the moun- 

 tain, and a half mile to the left, standing in the snow 

 on a knife-blade pinnacle, were two caribou. It is 

 difficult to tell why these Osborni caribou are so 

 often found on the very pinnacles of the peaks, as 

 it is quite cool enough lower down on the tundra 

 mountains and certainly they do not go to such ex- 

 treme heights to escape the flies and winged pests, 

 because the flies and mosquitoes have been gone for 

 some days. The guides do not know why the cari- 

 bou are frequently seen on the high peaks, but they 

 report that it is not, at all uncommon. 



Hoyt and the writer with Baker started out to 



