148 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



mon in the mountains bordering the Pine River in British 

 Columbia and in the Rockies north and south of the Peace 

 River. Still farther north, grizzly bears are well known to 

 occur in some numbers in the wilder parts of these regions to 

 central Alaska. Preble (1908), writing of the Athabasca- 

 Mackenzie area, says that they are found "throughout the 

 Rocky Mountain range and its eastern spurs west of the Mac- 

 kenzie, north to the Arctic .coast." Although annually some 

 are killed, it seems likely they will long hold out here. A report 

 of the U. S. Biological Survey in December 1938 states that 

 "the large brown and grizzly bears in Alaska are holding their 

 own as an outstanding wildlife resource of the Territory." 

 In parts of Alaska they appear to be more plentiful than for 

 many years, owing, it is believed, to the favorable attitude of 

 Territorial residents, to protective regulations under the 

 Alaska Game Law of 1925, and to sanctuary areas that total 

 more than 8,500,000 acres. Some three-fourths of these 

 sanctuary areas are comprised in Mount McKinley National 

 Park and Katmai and Glacier Bay National Monuments. 

 In addition, certain areas are now closed to hunting and else- 

 where regulations afford a closed season from June 20 to 

 September 1. The bag limit for large brown and grizzly bears 

 is two a year, except on Admiralty Island, where a limit of one 

 has been made, to induce nonresident hunters to visit other 

 areas. The sale of bear hides is now prohibited in Alaska, a 

 regulation considered as an outstanding factor in permitting 

 the increase of these big bears, while of equal importance is 

 the development of a better feeling by the residents, who now 

 "thoroughly appreciate this source of income and have no 

 desire to jeopardize it by killing off this attraction at no profit 

 to themselves." Along the Arctic coast bears may still be 

 regarded as a nuisance by certain interests, as miners and 

 trappers, but the Survey's agent at Nome reported that in his 

 district grizzlies are fairly numerous with no definite increase 

 or decrease. The few animals that are killed are those slain 

 by natives working with reindeer herds, and he believes their 

 actual damage is slight. In these regions that may long serve 

 as hunting areas it seems likely that these interesting and 

 remarkable carnivores will continue indefinitely under wise 

 management. 



