528 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
Alaska. In size and abundance the mountain goat appears to culmi- 
nate in the region around the White Horse Pass, where they are 
very abundant. They can still be seen within a half day’s march 
of Skagway. They occur in abundance around the St. Elias Alps, 
and extend as far west as the head of Cook Inlet. I only heard 
of one doubtful case of Kennedy’s goat, the horns of which have 
been described as lyrate. 
Walrus and whales—Walrus are found every winter and spring 
in the Bering Sea, and many are killed at that season by the natives 
for the ivory, which sells at a dollar a pound. The walrus formerly 
extended down to the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, but 
the rookeries there have been destroyed. This great mammal should 
receive absolute protection in the entire Bering Sea region, except on 
the Pribilof Islands, where only a few are annually killed by the 
natives. 
Whales and porpoises occur in great abundance along the inside 
passage between Puget Sound and Lynn Canal and are interesting 
and harmless. There are now two plants on Vancouver Island very 
profitably engaged in killing whale of all sizes and converting them 
into fertilizer. A new plant has just been established near Juneau, 
where whales are especially abundant. It would be an easy matter 
to protect these animals, especially with the cooperation of the 
Canadian authorities, throughout the inland passages and ocean- 
ward as far as the 3-mile limit. Protective legislation of this sort 
should be urged. 
Fossils —I any review of the present game conditions of the vast 
territory comprised within the district of Alaska and the Canadian 
territory of the Yukon, a few remarks on the former occurrence of 
related forms are not without interest. 
Bones of large extinct mammals, more or less fossilized, occur in 
abundance throughout the entire valley drained by the Yukon River 
from Dawson down, and in the valleys of the Colville and Porcupine 
rivers, and in still greater abundance on the Seward Peninsula, that 
projection of Alaska which reaches to within 60 miles of Siberia. 
Throughout this enormous area remains of the mammoth and bison 
occur in such numbers as to indicate former herds of great size. We 
find also a smaller number of remains of horses, sheep, and at least 
two species of musk ox, together with a deer closely related to our 
wapiti. Teeth of mastodon, although very rare as compared with 
those of the mammoth, indicate the former existence of that animal. 
It is perfectly evident that in times comparatively recent, from a 
geological point of view, perhaps from ten to twenty-five thousand 
years ago, Alaska had a fauna of large mammals not altogether dis- 
similar to existing animals of North America and northern Asia. 
The mastododn and mammoth, of course, no longer exist on this con- 
