SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 153 



directly opposite my position, and walked out of the timber as 

 though accustomed to the locality. As the grass was three feet 

 high, he could not see the bodies of his dead companions, and 

 approached within five feet before he noticed them. On catching 

 sight of the dead bears he wheeled^ reached the timber in about 

 two jumps, and was not seen afterward. 



Of the two specimens thus collected, one at least appears to 

 be a typical brown bear, although the natives insisted on call- 

 ing them both grizzlies. Although in poor pelage, the two bears 

 killed were in much better condition than several skins I saw from 

 bears killed near Kadiak Island fully a month before. 



The Indians hold the brown bear in great terror, and will not 

 attack one except under the most favorable circumstances. I 

 learned of several persons who were killed by bears, but in almost 

 every case wherein a person had been attacked, the bear was sud- 

 denly surprised at close quarters. Under most circumstances 

 bears are difficult to approach. Their eyesight is poor, but their 

 scent and hearing are both remarkably good. 



\Miile the inhabitants of Kadiak Island maintain that bears are 

 still plentiful, difl:'erent zoological gardens have offered two hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars each for cubs^ and have not yet received 

 one from that island. Four eastern sportsmen who spent the 

 greater part of last summer (1901) in hunting Kadiak bears saw 

 only ten bears during their trip, and they had with them natives 

 who were noted as expert hunters, and familiar with the haunts 

 and habits of the animals. Old residents say that in former years 

 it was not unusual to see several bears at a time. ]\Ir. Thomas 

 W. Hanmore said he had frequently seen such sights. As an old 

 Indian expressed it, Kadiak Bears once were " all the same 

 cattle." 



For the past three years the average number of bear-skins re- 

 ceived at various points on Kadiak Island by the agents of the 

 Alaska Commercial Company has been about twenty. This fig- 

 ure probably represents two-thirds of the total number killed an- 

 nually. I was told by Mr. J. L. Davis that the natives about Cape 

 Douglas often killed bears for their intestines, from which they 

 make waterproof garments. 



Gulo luscus, (Linn.). WOLVERINE. 



Mr. Hicks saw the tracks of two at our upper camp, thirty-five 

 miles from the mouth of Knik River. 



