IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



moose, sheep, goats, caribou, bears and men 

 (records of whose slaughter were told most 

 vividly) did not appear to us in our sleep that 

 night as a protest, then it was because they had 

 been killed so dead that there was no chance of 

 their ever returning to earth again in any form. 

 Up to that time I had always considered Harry 

 a pretty good single-handed talker, but he was 

 entirely outclassed by Cap and Shorty in their 

 recitations of old-time Alaska experiences. These 

 two sourdoughs battled in the oratorical arena 

 for hours, and at the conclusion of the contest, 

 which outrivaled in gameness and ferocity the 

 gladiator encounters of old, the bout was de- 

 clared a draw. 



Next day it continued raining, so the contest 

 was resumed, lasting all that day and far into 

 the night. Shorty told of once capturing a goat 

 alive in Alaska, and said they were so tame and 

 plentiful that it would be no trick at all to repeat 

 the performance on this trip. Cap said he had 

 seen the rabbits so thick in that country that 

 they ate off all the vegetation — in fact, these 

 rabbits were so numerous that finally they had 

 no feed whatever, so they ate themselves. Billy 

 Wooden told of killing an ibex in Alaska, describ- 

 ing it as a counterpart of the goat except that 

 the front feet were large and the horns were 

 twisted, containing ridges that ran in spiral fash- 

 ion around the horn, as in some of the European 

 species. 



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