. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. to by (/.eorgu Shira^ THE SI'XTIXKL JCWH After a Inng stalk on all fours the author got within 50 feet. Note the extremely long legs of tlie ewe. Tlie short black horns and white body have led many of the Alaskan miners from the Rocky Mountain States to mistake the ewes of these sheep for white mountain goats (see pages 485 and 4S6). Cottonwfiod Creek ran on its short and ra])iil career to Skilak Lake, 3,000 feet below. It was lierc that I .Ejot m\' last photo- graphs of rock ptarmigan, and as we clinilied np on the broken mass
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. to by (/.eorgu Shira^ THE SI'XTIXKL JCWH After a Inng stalk on all fours the author got within 50 feet. Note the extremely long legs of tlie ewe. Tlie short black horns and white body have led many of the Alaskan miners from the Rocky Mountain States to mistake the ewes of these sheep for white mountain goats (see pages 485 and 4S6). Cottonwfiod Creek ran on its short and ra])iil career to Skilak Lake, 3,000 feet below. It was lierc that I .Ejot m\' last photo- graphs of rock ptarmigan, and as we clinilied np on the broken mass of rock, littering the ])ass between the cliffs of the divide, I put away the lenses and boxed the camera in case of a fall through sucli insecure footing. Half way through the pass some one noticed seven or eight sheep, almost overhead, h'ing on a narrow ledge, with a peri)en- clicular drop of nearl}' 300 feet belefore I could get the camera out and arranged, the sheep, noticing that we had st(ipped and were gazing upward, became alarmed, and in a series of awe-inspiring leaps took ledge after ledge until the top was reached, when, getting in line, they all looked over. And that constituted my last but still lingering picture of these .graceful creatures, poised on the highest summit above Skilak Lake. Impressed once more with the agility and self-confidence of these nomads of the skies, I asked Tom whether he had ever seen the remains of anv indicating that sometimes life paid the forfeit of a careless gambol or in the des])erate ef- fort to avoid pursuit. Ide rejilied that during nearlv 16 vears in the sheep ranges of Alaska he had never seen a single case of the kind, though several times having found carcasses at the foot of a snow avalanche. And then occurred within a few short hours and at the same spot a tragedv constituting a most remarkable sequel to my inquiry. After returning to the lake and re- maining over night, Tom and Charlie started back in the morning for th
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