160 THE UPPER YUKON 



down in a piece of dense underbrush, where 

 I could look out on the water without being 

 seen. There I used the moose horn and 

 called for an hour. During this time the 

 peculiar sound of the horn actually seemed to 

 entrance a cock ptarmigan, which came walk- 

 ing along from some little distance and strut- 

 ted around in full sight of me, all the while 

 giving vent to a guttural clucking sound. 

 Once he made a complete circle around my 

 hiding place; when he arrived in front again 

 he stood still, looking at me, and turning his 

 head from side to side as if curious to find 

 out who and what I was. 



Receiving no answer to my call from the 

 animal for which the call was intended, we 

 reluctantly left this most beautiful location, 

 and found our way to the place where our 

 men had in the meantime found a good camp- 

 ing location and had pitched the tents for the 

 night. 



The following morning we crossed a con- 

 siderable elevation where there was much 

 boggy ground and a fair piece of timber land 

 mainly covered with balsam firs and spruce 

 trees. Down the far side of this low moun- 

 tain was a valley containing some little grass. 

 The bottom land was well covered with vol- 



