72 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



seen a similar animal. He at once replied, " Why, that is 

 the same beast, I guess." He declared these animals could 

 be seen near the head-waters of a tributary on the east side 

 of the Copper River. 



I may mention that early in 1904 two sub-species of wild 

 goat from British Columbia and Montana were described by 

 Dr. J. A. Allen, but these, of course, have nothing to do with 

 the reputed ibex. 



Now the only explanation of the riddle appears to me to 

 be this. Either there is some animal in Alaska as yet 

 unknown to naturalists and sportsmen, or these animals are 

 descendants of domestic goats which have escaped from old 

 Russian or native settlements in former times. The latter 

 theory is, I think, borne out by the so-called Mount St. 

 Elias ibex. Colonel Cane, in his book Summer and Fall in 

 Western Alaska, mentions a pair of horns which rrtay be seen 

 in the Post Office at Juneau, and are called the horns of a 

 Mount St. Elias ibex. It is claimed that the animal was 

 killed on the slopes of Mount St. Elias. I have seen and 

 examined these horns, and entirely agree with Colonel Cane's 

 remark that " they might at first sight have been taken for a 

 very small pair of markhor horns ; the twist of the spiral 

 was, however, inwards instead of outwards." 



On mature consideration, these horns certainly appear to 

 have belonged to some form of a domestic goat, although I 

 cannot say that I have actually seen any goat with a head 

 closely resembling the one in question. 



Doubtless some enterprising sportsman will ere long 

 make an expedition up into the Copper River country, where 

 there is also reported to be a particularly savage species of 

 brown bear called locally the " bald-faced bear." 



I have heard tales of these bears lying in wait for men 



