170 



RECREATION. 



with his great horns silhouetted against 

 the background of the mountain side, 



A PATRIARCH. 



gazing at the pack train. He must 

 have taken the horses for big game of 



Some 15 miles to the Northwest of this 

 spot is a plateau at an elevation of 7,000 

 feet, with mountains rising an additional 

 4,000 feet. To the left is a razor-backed 

 peak called Mount Wilcox. It rises some 

 3,000 or 4,000 feet above the plain on one 

 side and on the other its barren slopes fall 

 sharply away 8,000 or 10,000 feet into the 

 headwaters of the Athabasca, which filter 

 down from the toe of a great glacier. 



On the sides of Mount Wilcox we 

 counted at one time over 40 sheep. The po- 

 sition was inaccessible, but, by an arduous 

 climb, we came on a bunch of the animals 

 from above. As the party had been without 

 fresh meat for weeks several sheep were 

 shot. It was then about 8 in the evening, 

 and by the time we had dressed our game 

 it was nearly 10. We were 12 or 15 miles 

 from our camp, and bivouaced in a little 

 grove of pine trees just below the timber 

 line. As we sat on the soft moss about 

 our roaring camp fire, with the glaciers 

 thundering in the mountains about us and 

 the Northern lights tinging the snow caps 

 with their silvery glow, we all agreed that 



THE GLACIER OF THE BOW. 



30 miles North of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 



some kind, else surely he would not have 

 hesitated that fatal moment. Before he 

 could turn, a soft nosed 30-40 Winchester 

 bullet tore through his chest and out of his 

 side. He was standing on the edge of a 

 little dip, and he immediately disappeared 

 from view. In a moment we saw him 

 staggering painfully up the other side. Al- 

 most simultaneously 3 rifles cracked. The 

 ram stopped, sank to his knees, and his 

 great horned head rolled over on the 

 ground. 



He must have been a patriarch among 

 the sheep, for his horns measured between 

 15 and 18 inches around the base and had 

 a spread of 22 inches. The dimensions are 

 uncertain as there was no rule in the party. 

 His carcass weighed over 300 pounds, and 

 made our heaviest pack animal stagger. 



Farther down the valley the marks of 

 the sheep were so thick that for hundreds 

 of yards there was not a square foot that 

 was not dotted with tracks. 



there is no morsel more delicious to the 

 tired hunter than Rocky mountain mutton 

 roasted over a camp fire. 



LAID OUT. 



