INTRODUCTION 



life to this stirring portrayal of travel and adven- 

 ture, in a strange and wild land after strange 

 -wild beasts. 



We are glad that the Colorado Museum of 

 Natural History is prosperous, and in need of 

 the groups that intrepid sportsmen and skilled 

 taxidermists together can create. We are glad 

 that this trip was made, and that Mr. McGuire 

 has given us this admirable account of it. The 

 personnel of the expedition seems to have been 

 excellently composed. The local cooperation 

 was gratifying and effective. The supply of 

 game was sufficient, and the killing was done 

 with commendable moderation. Such toll of 

 wild life as was taken by that party does not 

 spell extermination; and we hold that there is no 

 higher use to which a dead wild animal can be 

 devoted than to mount it for permanent exhibi- 

 tion in a free public museum. 



Incidentally, the pictures of far northern scen- 

 ery, life and character herein set forth are dis- 

 tinctly educational, and to the honor and glory 

 of Alaska and Yukon Territory. They draw us 

 nearer to our great Arctic province, whose people 

 now are somewhat irritated and inclined to chafe 

 over the neglectful treatment that for forty years 

 and more has been bestowed upon that far-away 

 land. The Congress and people of the United 

 States never have taken Alaska with sufficient 

 seriousness; and the people of Alaska have been 

 strangely slow and backward in setting forth 



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