May, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
269 
Killey a bull moose was nosing his way 
through the alders and father up near the 
domain of the sheep a black bear was 
gathering his supper of berries. The little 
lake by our camp was fringed with mist- 
ill the world was wrapped in the silence 
Df approaching night. Soon we came to 
the trail we had made early in the day 
hat led down a series of steep cliffs into 
he alders and an hour later we were in 
tamp. Mackay and Andy returned short- 
y, having hunted all the way to Bear 
Ilacier. They had seen many rams but 
lad not succeeded in finding any large 
•nough to try to stalk. We sat about the 
ire and ate prodigiously, well content to 
rawl into our sleeping bags early. 
S soon as the light of another day was 
strong enough to recognize objects in 
we were up and eating breakfast. We 
ot away early and soon had climbed to 
nr reconnoitering ground high above the 
amp. The wind was blowing pretty hard 
nd we had to brace ourselves to with- 
tand its pressure as we climped upward, 
rer upward, toward the mythical top. 
Hiring one of our periods of rest Andy 
lied a band of sheep feeding in a grassy 
ollow below us to the right and upon ex¬ 
mining them carefully through our 
lasses we decided they were well worth 
alking; one or two seemed to have fair 
zed horns and we needed meat in camp 
adly. It fell to the lot of Ben and me 
!> tackle the job, so we slipped easily 
awn over the slope we had just worked 
j hard to climb and made a wide circle 
-ound a steep ledge, keeping well hidden 
1 'om the sharp eyes of our quest and the 
ind in the right quarter. As we came 
it on the draw which led up to where 
ie sheep were grazing we came unexpect- 
lly upon two small rams that had evi- 
mtly wandered away from the main 
ind. They saw us and scampered away 
.ward the others. It looked as though 
ie had been foiled in our stalk and we 
touched down expecting to see the entire 
nd move off. but after remaining sta¬ 
nnary for a few moments we advanced 
i.utiously and discovered that the sheep 
•ere still there. 
By this time I had become thoroughly 
ibued with the spirit of the stalk and 
.‘idied every movement made by Ben, the 
nster craftsman in the art. We crept 
snvly along, keeping a ridge of rock or 
nund of earth always between us and 
t; silent band until at last we rested safe- 
1 in a little draw well up toward the un- 
sspecting quarry. As soon as I had got 
r; wind I crawled a little way farther 
ai rising slowly to my knees looked over 
I ridge. About a hundred yards away in 
?in view were six splendid rams and 
■'i or three ewes. As my head appeared 
live the rocks they looked up in sur- 
?se and started to walk away. I picked 
a the biggest one and fired. The bullet 
2 ; .zed the top of his shoulder and he 
> mg around and started running in the 
iiosite direction while the others seemed 
ilecided just what to do—I fired again 
i the fleeing ram and then the whole 
3 d stampeded. Both my shots were high 
II in desperation I swung the barrel way 
Ivn and fired just as the ram disappeared 
> r a hummock. Thinking I had missed 
Min I began to shoot at another one 
when Ben said that the big ram was down 
so we ran forward and found him lying 
on his side. He was dead when we 
reached him, the bullet having passed 
through his shoulder, piercing his heart 
and lungs. His horns measured thirteen 
inches around the base, thirty-four inches 
curve and had a spread of fifteen inches— 
not a very large ram but his head was 
exceptionally pretty and his horns made a 
full circle and were unbroken. 
We sat down and quietly filled our 
pipes, lit them and smoked in blissful con¬ 
templation of our good fortune, talking 
over all the incidents of the stalk includ¬ 
ing the two misses, which Ben very gener¬ 
ously explained. He said that the ivory 
sight on my rifle had probably not shown 
up very well against the white sheep and 
I had been holding the base of the sight 
in the niche thereby over-shooting my 
mark. It sounded very reasonable as all 
excuses do but as I had my ram I did not 
worry very much about it. 
We removed his cape and scull and 
cleaned and prepared the meat. The ram 
was fat and in fine condition; we had 
visions of hot mulligan for many days to 
come and I thought how glad Walt and 
Tom would be when they reached camp 
sometime tomorrow and found a good 
meat dinner awaiting them. Mackay and 
Andy had disappeared over the mountain 
top, hunting toward Benjamin Creek. We 
decided to go back to camp and rest dur¬ 
ing the remainder of the day so we packed 
the head and hind quarters down the 
rough trail and soon were happily resting 
by a cheerful fire and I was well Contented. 
M ACKAY and Andy returned at dusk, 
having put in a rather hard day of 
it on the mountain top fighting the 
wind and fog. They had seen a number 
of sheep but no rams large enough to 
warrant a stalk. We feasted on sheep 
liver and smoked awhile and then went to 
Packing the trophy back to camp 
bed, putting in a rather uncomfortable 
night as the wind increased to a gale and 
a hard driving rain beat in our little tent. 
We wished the rain might have held off 
until the boys had brought up the big tent 
The storm was still raging when we awoke 
so we decided it was impossible to hunt 
on the high mountains. We had plenty of 
mutton and breakfast proved an affair of 
some merit. Afterwards we went down to 
the river to see if we could find a place to 
swing a bridge across, but the water was 
so high and the current so swift we gave 
up in despair, after felling a couple of trees 
and watching them swing down stream. On 
our way back we found a good place to 
target our rifles and spent a little while 
trying out the sights. Arriving back in 
camp, Mackay chopped a good supply of 
fire wood while I busied myself writing 
up my diary.—We rather enjoyed a day 
of rest. One of the chief pleasures of a 
hunt for big game in a country where it is 
abundant is the absence of the feverish 
anxiety and impatience that so often attend 
a hunt in game fields which have been near¬ 
ly shot out. If today is too stormy to 
hunt there will be another day—one knows 
the game will not vanish overnight. If one 
has a comfortable camp an occasional clay 
of rest is never begrudged as wasted. 
A BOUT noon Walt and Tom came up 
the trail with heavy loads. When I 
told them that we had meat in camp 
they sent up a shout and the tired pack 
train look gave way to one of carefree op¬ 
timism. When they at last admitted that 
they had had enough to eat we learned the 
story of their trip. Going out light they 
had made the journey to Skilak Lake in 
one day. The lake had risen six feet since 
we left, a glacier pot hole had broken and 
caused a flood. They had seen a black fox 
and passed close by a brown bear near the 
spot where we had lunched the first day 
out. Coming back with eighty-pound packs, 
climbing through the rain and wet bush 
had been rather uncomfortable, but they 
had made Benjamin Creek at six o’clock 
and spent the night in Old Bill’s trapping 
cabin, after they had cleaned out a family 
of porcupines that were living inside. Get¬ 
ting an early start they had made good 
time up the last few miles of trail, passing 
within gunshot of a small black bear just 
before reaching camp. 
We put up the big tent down in a hollow 
out of the wind and got the stove working. 
It was a big improvement and we enjoyed 
our spacious quarters to the utmost, revel¬ 
ing in its warmth and cheer. Throughout 
the day we had observed some twenty 
sheep wandering about on the mountains 
across the river and a couple of black bear 
feasting on the berries. We ate our fill of 
mutton again for supper and smoked in 
a circle about the fire, relaxing as men 
will who are away from the convention¬ 
alities of life and in an atmosphere they 
enjoy. We wondered, concerning the war 
and discussed its probable outcome. Andy 
told of meeting an Indian who had just 
come out of the wilderness and knew noth¬ 
ing about the state the world was in. When 
he told him about the big fight and named 
the different nations engaged in it, the In¬ 
dian seemed much amazed and said: “Why 
don’t they get the marshal?” 
(to be continued next month) 
