IV. 



The White Sheep of Kenai Peninsula 



The last of July Blake and I sailed from the 

 Kadiak Islands, and one week later were landed 

 at the little settlement of Kenai, on the Kenai 

 Peninsula. 



The mountains of this region are unquestion- 

 ably the finest big-game shooting grounds in 

 North America at the present day. Here one may 

 expect to find four different kinds of bears — black, 

 two species of brown, and the Alaska grizzly — the 

 largest of moose, and the Kenai form of the white 

 sheep (Ovis dalli) . 



These hills lie back from the coast some thirty 

 miles, and may be reached by one of several rivers. 

 It takes a couple of days to ascend some of these 

 streams, but we determined to select a country 

 more difficult to enter, thinking it would be less 

 often visited by the local native hunters. We 

 therefore chose the mountains lying adjacent to 

 the Kenai Lake — a district which it took from a 

 week to ten days to reach. 



On August 14, shortly after noon, we started up 

 177 



