II GUIDES, EQUIPMENT, HUNTING LOCALITIES 15 



district, indeed, is peculiarly well adapted for bear-hunting, 

 since there is a large tract of mud- flats near the shore 

 intersected by numerous creeks. Bears may be found in 

 April and May eating the grass on the hill- sides, and in 

 June fishing for salmon in the creeks on the flats. In a few 

 weeks' hunting in Chinitna Bay in 1901, Messrs. Kidder 

 and Blake killed nine brown and four black bears. During 

 summer there is little difficulty in crossing Cook's Inlet, and 

 then leisurely making one's way into the sheep and moose 

 country on the Kenai Peninsula. In fact, this is the easiest 

 trip in Alaska, and can be done in comparative comfort. 

 Two American ladies have already accompanied their 

 husbands on shooting trips in Cook's Inlet, and neither 

 experienced any great hardship. 



Probably one of the finest trips in this part of the 

 territory would be up the Sushitna River, at the head of 

 Cook's Inlet. The mouth of the river can be reached by 

 a steamer which runs up and down the Inlet, while natives 

 and canoes can be obtained at the Sushitna settlement. 

 According to trustworthy information I have been at some 

 pains to collect, it seems probable that an expedition up the 

 left, or western, branch of the Sushitna, called the Skwentna 

 River, would result in a good bag of bears, wild sheep, 

 moose, and caribou, all of which are to be found abundantly. 

 Moose in that part are not so numerous, nor are they likely 

 to carry quite such fine heads as those on the Kenai 

 Peninsula, but the caribou heads from this country, of which 

 I have seen many, are remarkably good. Moreover, the 

 sheep on the mountains in this district have far better horns 

 than those on the Kenai Peninsula, So far none but natives 

 have hunted in these mountains, but the horns brought out 

 by them prove either that the sheep are a different variety, 



