GAME OF THE KENAI PENINSULA, 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 01? SNOW-WHITB SHEBP ' 



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 

 were 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 striking 

 result. Four large rams that had been 

 reclining on the top of a flat rock 200 

 yards 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 watch them," he continued, "and 

 you will see that on reaching the bottom 

 of the hill they will begin butting one 



