GAME OF THE KEXAI PEXIXSULA, ALASKA 
479 
but there was no way of determining the 
question without going outside. Gradu- 
ally my nerves quieted down and the next 
thing I knew was the buzzing of the 
mosquitoes in the morning, brought into 
activity by the early rising sun. 
Several hours later Tom arrived with 
cooked food sufficient for three meals, 
and, after sampling some of this, we re- 
turned again to the valley where the 
sheep were seen the afternoon before. 
The big band had broken up again into 
small flocks and were feeding on the 
same meadows, some of them working 
down our way. The wind still continued 
to blow up the valley, but as I now 
wished to get some views of the sheep 
grazing here and there on the meadows 
and at the same time determine with pre- 
ciseness just how close one could get be- 
fore the scent created alarm, we cau- 
tiously approached. 
MANY FLOCKS OF SNOVV-WtllTF SHEKP 
When 400 yards away from the nearest 
flock, a little blind was made by cutting 
out brush in the edge of a thicket on the 
top of a mound, and there we went into 
concealment for a number of hours. All 
the sheep were gradually working down 
wind, and the prospects for pictures and 
of determining their scenting power be- 
came excellent. 
The nearest flock, when 300 yards 
away, began showing some uneasiness. 
The old ewe in front, and which had 
charge of this particular flock, several 
times raised her head, sniffing the air 
suspiciously. At 200 yards the leading 
ewe stopped, looked directly our way, 
and I felt sure the limit of the approach 
had been reached, so several pictures 
vv'ere taken of the band. 
And none too soon, for the leader 
then turned back, and in a stiff-legged 
and peculiar way strode through the 
flock, with her little lamb following obe- 
diently in the rear. 
All the other sheep, some of which 
were grazing and some lying' down, 
seemed to take immediate notice of what 
was going on, for when the old ewe 
reached the end of the flock and began 
ascending the steep slope instead of con- 
tinuing up the valley meadow, the rest 
fell in behind and in a few minutes a 
great long file was zigzagging up the side 
of the mountain. 
And here occurred another strikirig 
result. Four large rams that had been 
reclining on the top of a flat rock 200 
3'ards beyond the rest of the sheep all 
stood up and began looking about, first 
at the line of sheep ascending the moun- 
tain and then down the valley. Whether 
their restlessness was wholly due to the 
flock of sheep leaving the valley at that 
hour or to the manner or peculiar ac- 
tions of the ewe or whether they had 
gotten a trace of scent was hard to tell. 
Soon the other sheep began working 
away from us, finally dropping into a 
meadow walled in by a stone ridge run- 
ning across the head of the valley ex- 
cept where broken by a narrow opening, 
through which a little stream dashed in 
a series of cascades. 
During this and all successive days we 
saw none of the sheep drink water either 
from the streams along which they 
grazed or from any of the pools of 
water in the green meadows. Whenever 
the sheep became thirsty they always 
went to a snow field, and so noticeable 
was this that I spent a part of one day 
getting into a position where photo- 
graphs could be taken of sheep coming 
to the snow banks for that purpose (see 
pages 484 and 487). 
A little later I saw a band of about 20 
sheep coming down the side of a distant 
mountain toward the meadow and on the 
dead run, jumping rocks, slipping and 
sliding down the steep sides of the bare 
mountain, hurrying across little terraces, 
over which they leaped and continued 
their rapid and downward course. 
So striking was this sight and so cer- 
tain was I that these sheep were badly 
alarmed that I aroused Tom, who was 
dozing in the sun a few feet away, and 
pointed to the sheep. Looking at them 
for a moment he said. "Why, those fel- 
lows are just coming to the meadow for 
their afternoon meal, and seeing all the 
others at work are losing no time in 
doing it." 
"Just v/atch them," he continued, '"and 
you w' 1 fee that on reaching the bottom 
of the hill they will begin butting one 
