Photo by George Sliiras, 3rd 
THE MOUNTAIN SLOPES OE THE SHEEP COUNTRY 
"Big Pond camp" in the foreground, situated midwav betv/seri the cabin on Benjamin 
Creek on the west and the great ice cap on the east. The author camped alone here several 
nights while photographing the white sheep. Two Alaska bear visited the tent one night 
(see page 477). 
near his cabin to one here, the march was 
continued, and at six in the evening the 
cabin came suddenly in sight, 200 feet 
below a terrace bordering the valley of 
the creek. John and I were quite used 
up, the former still suffering from the 
after-results of typhoid fever, contracted 
on our trip the previous 3^ear to Mexico, 
and I on general principles. 
But soon the restorative effect of a 
hearty meal and the inspiration of the 
surroundings gave me sufficient energy 
to climb a hill behind the cabin, and 
there, at 8 p. m., I could see, at the head- 
waters of Benjamin Creek, three differ- 
ent bands of sheep, all preparing to spend 
the night on little open benches not much 
above the meadows. Such a sight told 
the story of a country seldom visited by 
man and where these aboriginal pastoral 
flocks felt secure by night and day. 
BIG POND CAMP 
At 8 o'clock the next morning we were 
ready to start after sheep, leaving John 
in charge of the commissary department. 
Following the creek east half a mile, we 
then went up over a series of sloping 
meadows for a distance of three miles. 
A little above the cabm three small 
streams come together and, in combina- 
tion, form Benjamin Creek One flows 
in a zigzag course from the snow fields 
just this side of the low divide above 
Skilak Lake, where the melting snow 
is likewise the source of Cottonwood 
Creek ; another carries the overflow wa- 
ters of a big pond, in the highest meadow 
to the east, and the third drains several 
large valleys in the southeast. 
The two latter streams, lying between 
the highest and steepest mountains in 
the neighborhood, cut deeply into upland 
475 
