254 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



below the peak of a spur connecting with the range. 

 More careful scrutiny proved them to be ewes. My 

 first sight of the northern mountain- sheep ! At last we 

 were in the sheep ranges ! As we had eaten no good 

 meat except a few grouse and ptarmigan for eight 

 days, and our bacon was being rapidly consumed, I 

 immediately began to stalk, walking, as rapidly as 

 possible down the west slope of the divide on soft, 

 mossy ground, in some places miry and filled with 

 willows. Now and then I paused to watch the sheep, 

 which kept feeding quietly in the same place. At the 

 northern end of the spur, then opposite me, the slope 

 breaks, forming a cliff several hundred feet high, 

 traversing the end of the mountain east and west. 

 This cliff curves at the eastern extremity, cutting the 

 smooth slope which, at the brink, rises steeply in a 

 succession of benches to the top of the spur-mountain. 

 The spur encloses/ a beautiful basin of rolling meadows 

 in an amphitheatre of mountains. 



I started to climb at the west edge of the cliffs, 

 thereby keeping out of sight of the sheep. After climb- 

 ing perhaps three hundred feet I looked up under the 

 precipice, and at its base suddenly saw a grizzly bear 

 walking on some snow toward the curving cliff where 

 it cuts the east slope. Quickly dropping!, I almost slid 

 to the foot, where I could conceal myself in the willows 

 along the stream flowing from the basin. As the bear 

 proceeded I advanced parallel with it for about a 

 hundred yards, until it climbed over a steep snow- 

 bank to the top of the cliff and stood on the edge of 

 the east slope. As it ascended this snow-bank I noticed 

 a small cub playing about it. It was then 10 p.m. 

 The bear stood for a moment on the highest bench 



