THE COUNTRY OF THE BLACK SHEEP 



259 



READY FOR THE TRAIL, SHOWING THE APAREJO. 



would have been most dangerous to 

 skirt or descend the hillside from the 

 ledge on which we stood. The native 

 insisted on climbing along the moun- 

 tain, but he soon returned, as his dog 

 refused to follow him. 



The Indians in that country are very 

 superstitious, and have many queer cus- 

 toms relative to animals thev have 

 killed. 



On leaving the scene of a kill, it was 

 the custom of Denis, who was a Thai- 

 tan, to pile all the carcasses together. 

 When the bodies were too heavy for 

 him to move I have helped, in hopes 

 that he might give me his reason for 

 doing it; but the answer to my ques- 

 tions was always the same, "Bimeby 

 Mr. Fox come, he say 'thank you.' ' 

 Some natives cut the paunch of a dead 

 animal before leaving it, others place 

 the skull on a stick ; once, in the Cassiar 

 Mountains, I found a splendid set of the 

 Osborn caribou horns that some native 

 had planted in the earth so that the 

 horns pointed skyward. 



On the way home we found the two 

 dead goats, and after cutting some 



steaks we sat on the carcasses and 

 cooked lunch. 



Night found us in the bottom of the 

 canon, and with the packs it took us 

 until eleven o'clock to reach camp. We 

 had been walking and packing for sev- 

 enteen hours, and had climbed about 

 fourteen thousand feet ; and this was 

 not an unusual day's work. Sometimes 

 the measuring and skinning was done 

 in fierce snow squalls, and then we suf- 

 fered from the cold. 



As winter was in the air and we were 

 anxious to press on to the moose and 

 caribou country, we did not secure 

 many sheep on the Taku head-waters. 



Our next hunt for the black sheep 

 was about ninety miles south of the 

 Chesly, on the summit of the Iskoot 

 River, a tributary of the Stikine. We 

 arrived there on October 3 and pitched 

 the best camp I have ever seen. I have 

 traveled in many mountains and on the 

 plains, and with all kinds and conditions 

 of men, but I have yet to see Stone's 

 equal at camp-building. In the North 

 Conditions vary to such a degree that 

 making camp amounts to a science 



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