CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 129 



eight years. Like my last ram, this one of Hoyt's 

 has one horn broomed at the tip and an inch shorter 

 than the perfect horn. Dixon reported that a mile 

 back he located twenty-four rams with some very 

 large heads, and urged we go after them " with a 

 good chance of getting a record head," but as Hoyt 

 and myself each had three very fine specimens, we 

 decided the entire ram family might come up to us 

 and play around our camp in perfect security; so 

 packing our specimens on our backs we climbed up 

 and down several canyons and came out above our 

 horses. At the edge of a very steep slope Hoyt's 

 feet went out from under him and he slid down 

 through the snow to the bottom, while the rest of 

 us howled with glee as he shook himself out of the 

 drift; at the same point the writer absolutely dupli- 

 cated Hoyt's amusing performance, after which we 

 all felt better. 



Our horses were a bit stiff with cold from long 

 standing tethered in the gulch, so we quickly 

 mounted and returned to our willow-patch camp, 

 where we turned the animals loose and prepared the 

 evening meal. Since we have all the sheep we de- 

 sire and in view of the scanty horse feed, we decided 

 to make an early start in the morning from this ex- 

 posed camp and return to our main camp in the tim- 

 ber on the St. Clair. 



September j. The horses evidently exhausted 

 the available willow feed in our locality early during 



