266 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June, 1919 
was eaten in less time than it took him 
to turn around and go out of the door. 
C OMMENTING the next day on this 
camiverous horse Capt. Hubrick, 
our guide, told of a party of pros- 
pectors who found themselves late in the 
fall of 1914 at a new mining camp on the 
west coast of Cook’s Inlet possessed of 
fifteen good horses and no horse feed. 
In the spring their horses would be worth 
four hundred dollars each. At many of 
the stampedes horse rental was three 
dollars per hour,. The snow fall at 
Cook’s Inlet is heavy. Feed was impossi- 
ble to secure. There was nothing to do 
but to pull the shoes from the horse’s 
feet and see if they could rustle a living 
along with the moose. Snow was soon 
too deep for the horses to paw for moss 
and the branches of the young willows 
did not contain sufficient nourishment to 
prevent a rapid loss of weight and 
strength. The kind-hearted miners see- 
ing their dumb friends gradually starv- 
ing to death would occasionally pass out 
a crust of bread or a little table refuse 
so that the poor horses soon learned to 
stand around and wait for a shack door 
to open when they would all make a 
grand rush to see which could get the 
“hand out” that might be forthcoming. 
It happened that fall that the hunting 
parties had grreatly overstocked the camp 
with winter meat so it occurred to the 
miners to divide the supply with the 
horses outside. Each day a large kettle 
full was boiled at an open fire in the 
camp and the horses soon learned when, 
where and what their daily ration would 
be and each day they would crowd around 
the fire unwilling to wait for the cooking 
process to be completed. The result was 
that when feed was secured in the spring 
eight of the horses had survived and 
were soon brought back to normal weight 
and strength again. 
A fter our lunch was over Erickson 
and I started after the rams. They 
were no longer in sight, but we 
were sure they could not have gone far 
In a half hour’s time. Knowing that it 
would be useless to approach them from 
directly below we swung around to the 
rear of the mountain intending to get 
above them before they were disturbed. 
Ten days of constant travel had some- 
what hardened my muscles and I had a 
very good opinion of my walking ability, 
but that little jaunt of five or six miles 
around the base of the mountain to a 
gorge that we proposed to climb was ex- 
ecuted by the miner in such double quick 
time that I was badly fatigued before the 
real work began. Sheep hunting is usu- 
ally enjoyed among the perpetual snows 
and glacier ices of the lofty mountain 
tops, but nevertheless the hunter does 
not wear a fur overcoat on such a hunt. 
On this occasion I suggested a five min- 
ute rest as we were about to begin the 
climb and immediately took advantage 
of the opportunity to shed all extra cloth- 
ing. Taking off my hunting undershirt 
I put it and my cap in the coat tail 
pocket of my coat and then cached them 
all on a rock near by. With nothing but 
undersuit, pants and shoes for wearing 
apparel, and nothing to carry but gun 
and camera I was ready to start for the 
top. Erickson carried his coat in the 
form of a pack, a life line of one hundred 
feet of heavy sash cord, together with 
my glasses and an old rifle. 
We adopted the plan of climbing five 
minutes and then resting two but it soon 
took me seven minutes to make the dis- 
stance that Erickson made in five so he 
was the only one who got much advant- 
age from our system. We proceeded 
steadily for two hours using both hands 
and feet as we climbed from rock to rock. 
When well toward the top I conceived 
the idea of putting the life line in opera- 
tion and thereby keeping my companion 
within reach. We had proceeded but a 
short distance, each tied to an end of the 
rope, when the wisdom of its use was 
suddenly demonstrated. Near the top of 
the mountain and directly in our path as 
we were circling for a place to ascend 
appeared a narrow but precipitous gla- 
cier. Unless one looked down it did not 
appear dangerous for it was not more 
than fifty feet wide and was bordered 
on both sides with substantial rock mo- 
raines, but its surface was of hard, 
smooth ice and it led down at a frightful 
angle for a distance of at least two thou- 
sand feet to a bed of jagged rocks. 
It seemed but a second to cross it and 
Erickson with his rubber packs went 
swiftly across. I started to follow, but 
either my hobs were dull or my footing 
not so well chosen for I had not advanced 
more than five yards when my feet shot 
out from under me and I started like a 
bullet for the bottom. Sixty seconds of 
continued progress would have dashed me 
in pieces on the rocks below, but Erickson 
had a good footing on the rocks of the 
other side and the life line held and grad- 
ually swung me to the edge of the rock 
moraine. In two minutes I had climbed to 
his side, badly frightened, an unjured, 
but more cautious man. 
W HILE I stood there in thankful at- 
titude at having escaped an un- 
desirable and untimely end my at- 
tention was suddenly directed to the 
mountain side across the deep valley that 
lay behind us. On a small flat space near 
its top and almost at our own elevation, 
perhaps a mile away, we could see white 
objects moving about. I reached for my 
glasses in Erickson’s hand and beheld 
one of the most fascinating scenes that 
the wilderness has ever disclosed to me. 
Two powerful rams were engaged in mor- 
tal combat, while a single ewe stood by, 
apparently disinterested as to which 
should be her Lord and Master. The 
comparatively flat space on which they 
fought did not appear to us much larger 
than a good sized room. They would 
each back off as far as the cliff would 
permit and then go forward to the colli- 
sion with a run and jump. As their 
bodies rebounded from the blow it did not 
appear that each was able to acquire a 
sufficient momentum to give him a deci- 
sive victory. Slowly they would with- 
draw, rest for three or four minutes, and 
then at exactly the same second rush for- 
ward once more. 
We watched for twenty minutes, tak- 
ing turns at the use of the single pair 
of glasses and a boxing match between 
champions could not have been more ab- 
sorbing. At last one of the contestants 
manoeuvred into such a position that his 
next blow pushed his antagonist over the 
cliff. He rolled, then tumbled and did not 
gain his footing for fifty feet or more. 
It looked as if the fight was settled, but 
to our surprise the apparently van- 
quished ram arose, shook himself and 
then slowly and deliberately began 
climbing back to his former position on 
the field of battle. 
The other ram having no intention of 
losing the advantage gained came at him 
with a rush before he was fairly on the 
ledge and then occurred one of the most 
clever movements that I have ever heard 
of wild animals exercising. Instead of 
meeting his on-rushing opponent in the 
same give and take manner he had al- 
ways heretofore done he suddenly side- 
stepped the collision at the same time 
dropping his head closely to the ground. 
The result was that the charging ram 
went precipitously over the brink. More 
than one complete summer-sault he 
turned and often seemed to fall for ten to 
twenty feet at a time. 
When he came to a stop he had fallen 
a hundred feet or more. That he was 
badly bruised was evident from the fact 
Crossing a rock moraine on the way to Erickson’s cabin 
