142 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



shot during the summer is small. Most white men recognize 

 the laws of nature, and will not eat meat killed during the sum- 

 mer. In spring and summer the Indians have an abundance of 

 salmon, and do not need to kill moose and other land animals. 



There is a belt along the north and west sides of Cook Inlet 

 wherein game of all kinds has greatly diminished during the 

 past few years. Next to the destruction of moose and caribou, 

 the case of the Sitka deer is probably the most serious of all. 

 These beautiful little creatures are found in vast numbers on 

 the islands and along the coast of southwestern Alaska. Be- 

 ginning about September ist, both native and white hunters 

 cruise among the islands in small boats, and either hunt the deer 

 with jack-lights or run them into the water with dogs and shoot 

 them while swimming. The greatest slaughter occurs about 

 Wrangel, where the deer are most abundant. Carcasses often 

 sell for a dollar each, and frequently the bodies of deer are piled 

 up on the wharves like cord-wood. I was told by one person 

 that he has seen the loft of a warehouse hanging so thickly with 

 their bodies that it seemed impossible to crowd in even one 

 more. 



It is no uncommon occurrence for sloops manned by small 

 crews to return from a few days' trip with from fifty to seventy- 

 five carcasses. But often only the hind-quarters are taken. 

 From my note-book I copy the following under the name of 

 Harry Pigeon of Wrangel : " I saw a party of five persons re- 

 turn from a week's hunt with one hundred and fifty-two car- 

 casses of deer aboard their sloop." 



While the slaughter is not quite so extensive in other local- 

 ities, it is probably because the deer are not so plentiful. Dur- 

 ing the summer, when the meat and hides ate not good, the 

 number killed is comparatively small. Deer-skins have a com- 

 mercial value of from ten to twenty cents each, and small as this 

 is, thousands are slaughtered for their hides alone. While at 

 Juneau I saw in the Pacific Coast Company's warehouse ten 

 bundles of deer-hides, each containing about seventy skins, 

 waiting shipment. A few weeks later a second shipment of the 

 kind was made. 



With the moose, while the slaughter is not so great, numbers 

 are wantonly killed, as the following instance will show: Two 

 men at Chickaloon Bay, near Turnagain Arm, Cook Inlet, 



