146 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



morning and a lavender tint as he disappeared be- 

 hind the peaks at night, and received the simple 

 answer: 'When Big Fire come in morning, him 

 make all warm, him make warm look on snow ; when 

 Big Fire go down sleep, him make all cold, him 

 make cold mark on snow; tell Injun go make fire." 



We walked along the ridge many miles, search- 

 ing the valley for moose, but failed to locate any- 

 thing until five miles from camp a herd of twenty- 

 one caribou were seen on the tundra, pawing down 

 through the snow to get their morning meal of white 

 moss, which is almost their only winter diet. Since 

 our need for meat was pressing, the writer picked 

 out a small calf, which fell dead with a single shot, 

 and Albert packed the animal on his back to our 

 camp, where we immediately fried and dispatched 

 all the rib chops. 



At eleven we were again on a lookout ridge, and 

 seven miles away down the valley at Tepee Lake 

 we saw a moose feeding in the water. The glasses 

 disclosed him to be a bull with a very good head and 

 a twelve-inch-long bell which had not been frozen 

 off in the winter. We wanted him badly, but did 

 not dare to leave our vantage point, as long before 

 we could reach him his feeding would be finished 

 and we would not know the course he had taken. 



After watching him an hour, the moose left the 

 lake and started into the timber on the right, and 

 we saw him no more. It was almost useless to at- 



