90 THE UPPER YUKON 



industriously scanned, and what do you think 

 we discovered had happened? They had 

 come directly down the decline, so that they 

 must be almost under us at the base of the 

 butte. Crawling to the very top of the pin- 

 nacle and then dragging myself on the snow 

 to the far edge, I saw them lying down almost 

 directly beneath us. They had cleared the 

 snow away with their feet, and were resting 

 and taking things easy. 



The Chief having also climbed up, we de- 

 cided which were the best two in the bunch 

 and I got ready to shoot. Two were lying on 

 their sides with their backs to us, and they 

 were the ones I wanted; the remaining two 

 were facing the butte. It was an awkward 

 shot to make, as it was almost a straight drop 

 of eight hundred to nine hundred feet to the 

 foot of the butte. Aiming carefully, I fired 

 at my first choice. He was up and off in a 

 jiffy, running around the right side of the 

 butte and so past us. The three remaining 

 animals also sprang up, and were off, too, but 

 I bowled over the second one with the next 

 shot. I then turned to look for the first one 

 and a trail of blood was seen on the white 

 snow spattered about on both sides of his 

 tracks, showing where he had run up the in- 



