130 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



the night, for about midnight we heard the tinkle of 

 their bells going down the valley, and Dixon got up 

 and went after them. An hour or two later they 

 started down again, so Albert took their trail and 

 brought them back; when they made the third at- 

 tempt, as it was about daylight, we decided to have 

 breakfast and start down the valley. Our single 

 pack animal, loaded with bedding, cook outfit, and 

 six big heads in addition to Hoyt's caribou head, 

 presented a rather wonderful appearance with the 

 different horns along his sides and the big antlers 

 rising above his back. 



As we went down the wide river bottom to lower 

 levels the snow became lighter, until at our home 

 camp in the timber there was no snow whatever, 

 though it lay deep upon the low slopes on either 

 side. The big snow had broken down several of 

 our tents, which had been set up again with six-inch 

 diameter ridge poles, but the snow had entirely 

 melted about camp, which presented a very summery 

 aspect compared to our recent willow patch. 



The day we had gone up the left branch of the 

 St. Clair, Wolcott with Hayden had gone up among 

 the mountains on the right branch and had hunted 

 sheep. There were many ewes and lambs ranging 

 in their locality, but they saw only several bands of 

 rams, one of which Wolcott killed; the head was 

 only fair size and not perfect, as one of the points 

 was broken. When they crawled out of the drift 



