IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



a revision of the present law would not have a 

 harmful effect. 



There has been an average of nearly one man 

 a year killed in the North by the big brown and 

 grizzly bears, and several a year mauled and 

 maimed, and I believe that the time has come to 

 act. My feeling for the bears of the States, 

 where they behave themselves, is different, and 

 it is that feeling which has caused me to hold off 

 so long on my pronouncement against the North- 

 ern bears. I believe we are justified now in re- 

 moving all protection from the big browns and 

 grizzlies, with the exception of a $5 or a $10 

 export license on the hides. In my former 

 recommendations concerning these animals I 

 have suggested a compromise by increasing the 

 bag limit south of 62 , to four, and increasing the 

 open season one month above the old period. 

 However, since these expressions were published 

 I have been confronted with some very vicious 

 and unprovoked attacks by them on miners and 

 others, resulting in two deaths and some maul- 

 ings, and I cannot further restrain my feelings 

 that they should go their way unprotected. It is 

 very possible that ere this book is published the 

 powers that be will have begun on some such 

 change as I have mentioned. If such a rule is 

 established it will have my support, and, of 

 course, the undivided approval of the Alaskans. 

 Dr. Nelson, chief of the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey, is in favor of the plan. 



3° 



