ENROUTE TO THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



I was curiously interested in the ibex story, 

 especially as I had heard from other sources of 

 these animals having existed there. One man 

 who vouches for their presence at one time in 

 Alaska is ex-Representative James Wickersham, 

 of Fairbanks, with whom I conversed on the 

 subject. 



However, Judge Wickersham, I believe, re- 

 ceived his impressions more from what he read 

 in Gen. T. A. Allen's book, "Government Report 

 on the Copper River (Alaska) Exploring Expedi- 

 tion of 1886," than from any personal experience 

 that he has had with the supposed animals. I 

 have a copy of General Allen's book, and publish 

 herewith an extract from it covering the subject, 

 as follows: 



"Whether the big-horn mountain sheep, ovis 

 canadensis, exists in Alaska I am unable to say, 

 but I desire to add also a new geographical race 

 of the same. The animal in question is called by 

 the natives tebay, and this name I leave un- 

 changed until a specimen will have been carried 

 out of the territory. We killed several of these 

 animals, one of which, a ram, had horns twenty 

 inches long and nearly straight. Their structure 

 was similar to that of the bighorn, but the curva- 

 ture was very slight. This ram was killed on a 

 very high point, such a place as is usually sought 

 by them, and in its fall was sadly mangled. The 

 head of the tebay is much like that of a South- 

 down sheep, the muzzle much less pointed than 



