532 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



when the reindeer moved to more-distant parts of the island, the 

 natives lost interest. 



The Government teacher would sometimes organize an ex- 

 pedition to procure reindeer meat, but, on the whole, the Aleuts 

 preferred fishing. 



According to the Government teacher stationed on Atka Island 

 in 1937, some of the reindeer appeared to be diseased and very- 

 poor. Some had "pus in the joints" and some had lesions above 

 the hoofs. 



It must be concluded that reindeer have proven to be a failure 

 in the Aleutian district and that, while they are able to subsist 

 to some extent, the forage in this area is not suitable for intensive 

 reindeer raising. 



Family BOVIDAE 



Ovis dalli: Dall Sheep (White Sheep) 

 Ovis dalli dalli 



Russian: Dee-ke bar-an "Wild Sheep" (Buxton) 



Osgood (1904, p. 30) says- 

 White sheep are found in small numbers in the mountains between Lake 

 Clark and Cook Inlet, and are probably more or less continuously distributed 

 from there northward along the Alaska Range. They are not reported 

 from the mountains near Iliamna Bay, so it is probable that they do not 

 occur farther west than the vicinity of Lake Clark. 



There are two specimens in the National Museum obtained by 

 McKay from the Chigmit Mountains (which proves to be an in- 

 definite locality designation, meaning somewhere in the mountains 

 back from Nushagak) . 



Family HYDRODAMAUDAE 

 Hydrodamalis gigas: Steller Sea Cow 



Russian: Morskaia kcrova (Steller) 



Our knowledge of the sea cow depends mainly on the account 

 of Steller, wiio, in the disastrous winter when Bering's expedition 

 was wrecked on Bering Island after discovery of Alaska in 1741, 

 had ample opportunity to study this animal at first hand. The 

 sea cow furnished food for Bering's party, as well as for other 

 expeditions that used the Commander Islands as a starting point 

 for Alaska. It was exterminated by 1768. 



There has always been a question whether this animal had 



