ENROUTE TO THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



unclean women and children. I presume the 

 "men-folks" were away fishing for salmon, one 

 of their chief occupations. 



One of our party, reading from the Cordova 

 Daily Herald of August 8 th, clipped the following 

 note and handed it to me: 



"Hans Larson, a prospector on the Stewart 

 River, was severely mauled by a bear recently. 

 He was bending over a piece of quartz, when the 

 bear attacked him from behind, tearing his 

 scalp badly and taking strips from his back an 

 inch wide and two inches deep in places. He 

 killed the bear with his rifle, and mushed ten 

 miles to another camp, where he received surgi- 

 cal attention. He will recover, altho he is very 

 weak from loss of blood." 



"A very common occurrence up here," re- 

 marked one of the members of our party, when 

 he had heard the piece read. "The present pro- 

 tection should be taken from the big brown bear 

 in Alaska, or at least it should be vitally modi- 

 fied." 



I believe, considering the formidable build and 

 more surly disposition of these big plantigrades, 

 as contrasted with those of the blacks, and even 

 the grizzlies of the States, that the present law 

 on them could with justice to all be changed. I 

 will confess that I never felt this way until I had 

 hunted in that country, but after talking with 

 the people of Alaska and hearing of the natural 

 prejudice up there against these bears, I feel that 



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