522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
States. Of all the regulations established for the preservation of 
wild life, the most practical and effective have been found to be, first, 
the prohibition of hide and head hunting; second, the prohibition 
of market hunting; third, and most important of all, the establish- 
ment of sanctuaries where game could roam and breed absolutely 
undisturbed. The most conspicuous example of such refuges is the 
Yellowstone Park, the unquestioned success of which is admitted 
on all sides. 
At the end of the century, the gold discovered in the extreme 
northwest of Canada and in Alaska brought these territories sud- 
denly before the public eye. Here was a district of enormous ex- 
tent, lying at the extreme limit of the continent, and populated 
by a large and varied fauna, which was practically undisturbed. 
During the last ten years thousands of prospectors and miners have 
gone into Alaska, and in many places worked havoc with the game. 
On the whole, however, the destruction of the game has not yet gone 
far enough to permanently injure the fauna of the region, provided 
the matter of protection is taken in hand scientifically and in the 
immediate future. 
We have in Alaska a gigantie preserve. In it there are not only 
several species rich in the numbers of their individual members, but 
also certain species which in point of size appear to be the very 
culmination of their respective genera, as, for example, the giant 
moose. The brown bear group of southern Alaska certainly contains 
the largest bears in the world, not even excepting the great fish bear 
of Kamchatka or the extinct cave bear of Europe. The largest 
known wolves are found in northern Alaska, and a wolverine of ex- 
ceptional size has been recently described. When this great game 
region was first opened up immediate legislation was needed to pro- 
tect the animals from the deliberate onslaught of hide hunters in 
southeastern Alaska; of head hunters, who attacked the moose, sheep, 
and caribou of the Kenai Peninsula, and of the market hunters gen- 
erally throughout the coast regions. A game law, which certainly 
proved effective in-making it difficult for sportsmen to hunt in 
Alaska, was passed, and a revision of this statute is now before 
Congress. It is not the intention to discuss in this paper the details 
of the proposed legislation, beyond saying that the measure is pro- 
posed by the friends of animal life in Alaska, and has the support 
of the best interests in that Territory. 
The general principles of game protection applicable to the situ- 
ation in Alaska are simple. It should be clearly understood that the 
game of Alaska, or of any other region, does not belong exclusively 
to the human inhabitants of that particular region, and that neither 
the white settlers nor the native inhabitants have any inherent right 
to the game other than that conferred by law. The interest of the 
