Vol. XX, pp. 59-64 April 18, 1907 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A COLLECTION OF MAMMALS FROM THE REGION 



OF MOUNT McKINLEY, ALASKA. ':-7as 



BY WILFRED H. OSGOOD. 



Through the interest and liljerality of Mr. Charles Sheldon, 

 of New York, the Biological Survey collection has recently been 

 enriched l)y a small but valual)k' collection of mammals from 

 the little-known region al)out the northeast base of INIount 

 INIcKinley, in the interior of Alaska. Mr. Sheldon spent the 

 latter part of July about the northern base of Mount McKinley ; 

 and all of August, 1906, in the vicinity of the head of the 

 Toklat River, having reached these localities by way of the 

 Tanana and Kantishna rivers, traveling by steamboats to the 

 junction of the Kantishna and Toklat and thence with pack- 

 horses to the sources of the Toklat, high on the slopes of the 

 Alaskan Range. 



This region is mainly treeless. Mr. Sheldon writes: "At the 

 foot of the Alaskan range on the north side, there is a belt 

 from ten to twenty miles wide of country extending north, all 

 rolling and completely destitute of timber except a few willows 

 along the streams. At a few points, the timber (spruce) runs 

 up to within seven or eight miles of the mountains. There is 

 a strip of timber running to the foot of the Peters Glacier, then 

 no spruce timber thence to the second branch of the Toklat 

 River, and then no timber for fifteen miles east on another 

 branch. My camps were all in the timberless region or at the 

 head of the timber mentioned." 



Although occupied chiefly in hunting and studying the habits 

 of mountain sheep and other large game, Mr. Sheldon preserved 

 specimens of small mammals also. Most interesting of these, is 

 a small Alpine vole which not only represents a slightly char- 

 acterized new subspecies but also belongs to a group of rare 

 species hitherto known only from the Kenai Peninsula and cer- 

 13— Proc. Biox.. goq, Was«., Vol. XX, 1907. (59) 



