1 82 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



could judge. One was limping painfully, and was evidently- 

 wounded in the foreleg. They both lay down about 200 

 yards from us, and I reasoned with Pitka as to whether or no 

 in self-defence I had not better shoot the pair of them and 

 save further trouble. As we had no need of them, I decided 

 to remain quiet and await developments. Shortly after- 

 wards the heads of three men appeared on the sky-line, and 

 as all of them carried rifles, and were bearing down on us 

 with the sheep in a straight line between, I thought it wise 

 to stand up and wave my cap, showing them where the sheep 

 lay. The nearer of the two men got up to within about 50 

 yards of the sheep and succeeded in killing one, although by 

 some means he managed to miss the wounded one as it 

 limped off over the brow of the hill. On walking across to 

 them, I found that the party consisted of two Americans and 

 a native. The leader of the party informed me that he was 

 Mr. Bonham of Denver, Colorado, and that he was collecting 

 specimens for the Denver Museum. I told him I feared he 

 would have some trouble to find good rams there. He said 

 he wanted anything — ewes, lambs, etc., to make large groups 

 for the museum. These latter I told him he would have no 

 trouble in getting, since I could have killed twenty or thirty 

 in a couple of days. 



The arrival of another party besides ourselves decided me 

 to abandon this country, and to move some miles farther up 

 the creek, where Pitka assured me we should find lots of 

 " big-horns," as he called the rams. He believed they had 

 all moved to the precipices near the glacier above our camp. 

 This did not sound much in my line of business, but we 

 decided to try it. 



Next day we moved camp and travelled as far up the 

 creek as we could go. On one occasion we were compelled 



