ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 193 



animals to show fight. Its first impulse and its last one while within 

 our influence was flight — males, females, and cubs, all, when surprised 

 by us, rushing with one accord right, left, and in every direction over 

 the hills and away. 



After shooting half a dozen we destroyed no more, for we speedily 

 found that Ave had made their aceiuaintance at the height of their 

 shedding season; and their snowy and highly prized winter dress 

 was a very different article from the dingy, saffron-colored, grayish 

 fur that was flying like downy feathers in the wind whenever rubbed 

 or pulled by our hands. They never roared, or uttered any sound 

 whatever, even when shot or wounded. 



Excellence of the flesh. — Let me testify at this moment to 

 the excellent quality of polar-bear steak. We gave it a fair trial, 

 and it conquered all our prejudices — mine in especial, because I had 

 been victimized with black-bear meat many years before, in British 

 Columbia. 



Immense size of the polar bear. — These bears irapre-ssed me 

 greatly by their enormous size. One, shot by Lieutenant Maynard, 

 measured exactly 8 feet from the tip of its nose to its excessively short 

 tail, and could not have weighed less tlian 1,000 or 1,200 i^ounds. It 

 had a girth of 24 inches around the muscles of the forearm alone, at 

 the place where the skin was removed and the foot cut oft" just back 

 of the carpal joint, that corresponds to our wrist. This animal was 

 very fat, and its head was scarred all over with wounds, evidently 

 received in fighting with its kind. No worms were found in the 

 intestines and stomach ; the liver was speckled with light grayish 

 green dots, and normal. Many of them were seen grazing and root- 

 ing like hogs on a common. 



Fitful sleep op bears. — They sleep soundly, but fitfully, rolling 

 their heavy arms and legs about as they doze. For naps they seem to 

 prefer little grassy depressions on the sunny hillsides and along the 

 numerous water courses, and their paths were broad and well beaten 

 all over the island. We could not have observed less than 250 or 300 

 of these animals while we were there. At one landing on Hall Island 

 there were 16, scampering up and off from the approach of the ship's 

 boat, at one sweep of our eyes. 



Fur seals can not land here. — The chief attraction to these 

 bears, undoubtedly, at St. Matthew, is the walrus' herds; and the 

 island's special adaptation by its position to a possibility of its ever 

 being resorted to by the fur seal was the reason of my visit; and the 

 result of my careful examination shows conclusively that the char- 

 acter of the gravel sj)its and necks, which are the only landing grounds 

 offered, is such as not to be fit for the reception of breeding seals, as 

 they would be speedily converted bj^ them into a sheet of mud and 

 slime; and there is no other ground presented save at the base of 

 cliffs everywhere rising up from the sea. Seals, also, if they could 

 land here independent of this polar-bear scourge, which owns and 

 controls St. Matthew, would find a climate that keeps snow and ice 

 on the beaches until late in June, and still later; hence, I am well 

 satisfied that the fur seals have never visited this desolate land, nor 

 will they ever rest upon it.^ 



' This survey made by Lieutenant Maynard and myself is the first careful 

 exploration of the island. The only work hitherto done was the approximate chart- 

 ing of its coast from the decks 'of Cook's and Billings's and Bering's vessels. 

 Maynard and myself made a detailed plotting of the island, and gave a copy to 

 the United States Coast Survey in August, 1874. 



H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 13 



