X IN THE SHEEP COUNTRY 179 



which ran with tremendous pace. To say that the water 

 was cold, was hardly to express what it felt like ; but once 

 safely across, I made the men pitch camp, and soon put on 

 the only dry things I could raise in my kit. Here we were 

 again below the timber line, and could find plenty of fuel for 

 fires. 



Next morning we were up at daylight, and after a hasty 

 breakfast took what I judged to be the easiest way of ascent 

 from our camp to the sides of the mountains where we had 

 already seen some sheep. The sides of the canon through 

 which the stream ran were at this place some 1 200 feet high, 

 and although not really precipitous, it entailed nearly an 

 hour's climbing to get out of the gorge. On reaching the 

 top we saw before us a long stretch of undulating ground 

 sloping up to a steep hill some three miles away. Ovis dalli 

 inhabits the highest points of the mountains by day, but 

 early in the morning and late in the evening the sheep 

 draw down on the lower slopes to feed. We arrived on these 

 slopes in time to see the ewes and lambs feeding, and as 

 nearly as we could count there were over 130 of them 

 scattered in bunches over the hillsides. These were not 

 what I was looking for, and we pushed on to higher ground, 

 avoiding, so far as possible, frightening the ewes as we went. 

 Sending a native out on each flank, we walked straight ahead, 

 covering a large extent of ground, but although we did not 

 return to camp until thirteen hours after leaving it, during 

 which time we found ourselves getting pretty hungry, no 

 sign of a decent ram was to be seen. The men implored me 

 to shoot a ewe for meat, but as I momentarily expected to 

 find rams, I would not fire for fear of scaring away any that 

 might be near although not visible. 



The next day was a repetition of the first, except that, on 



