100 On the trail of vanishing birds 



tribes have this same illusion, but doubtless few tribal environ- 

 ments are so perfectly isolated, both physically and culturally, as 

 the remote basin of the Old Crow. We estimated that it covers 

 about 2,000 square miles, a really tremendous region. Although 

 surrounded by steep and furrowed mountains that rise to shoul- 

 ders, spurs, slopes, ridges, and peaks of sedimentary Mesozoic 

 rocks, the basin itself is considerably less than 1,000 feet in eleva- 

 tion and is almost perfectly flat. The habitat is transitional in 

 character, with areas of spruce as well as extensive barren lands. 

 There are many shallow, rectangular-shaped, sedge-rimmed lakes 

 and ponds, and in them we found the highest density of water- 

 fowl that we came across all summer. These consisted of scoters, 

 baldpates, and scaup in great numbers and smaller numbers of 

 pintails, golden-eyes, old squaws, and canvasbacks. Our estimate 

 of the total duck population was 112,400 for all species, an im- 

 pressive figure that was based on a calculated density of 56.2 

 ducks per square mile. There were also some 4,800 Canada geese 

 and perhaps 100 little brown cranes; but not one whooping crane. 



According to Cpl. E. A. Kirk of the R.C.M.P. detachment at 

 Old Crow, mosses and other typical tundra plants abound on 

 the treeless stretches. On the shores of many of the lakes, great 

 piles of rotted vegetation and silt are piled 10 and 20 feet high. 

 Through the length of the plain, meandering in elaborate oxbows 

 and long, winding loops, flows the Old Crow River, entrenched 

 from 60 to 125 feet below the level of the valley proper. We saw 

 very few natives in all that vast and rugged wilderness. 



When our sample waterfowl transects had been run, we turned 

 back to the vicinity of the settlement, partly because we were 

 curious to see the capital of the Loucheux and partly because we 

 wanted to talk with Corporal Kirk, the only white man living 

 permanently in that part of the Yukon. The level of the river 

 was above normal depth fortunately for us, as it turned out 

 and as we swung in low over its surface it appeared to be racing 

 along at a record clip. No place to land a fast little Grumman, 

 ordinarily. But Smith didn't hesitate for more than half a second 

 and in we came, landing with a great splash and bouncing a couple 

 of times before the aircraft decided to act like a large-winged fish 



