Article XXI. MAMMALS COLLECTED IN ALASKA 

 AXD NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA BY THE 

 ANDREW J. STONE EXPEDITION OF 1902. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



The collection of mammals obtained by the Andrew J. Stone 

 Expedition 1 of 1902 numbers nearly noo specimens, repre- 

 senting 43 species and subspecies, some of them by very large 

 series; it includes about 50 head of large game, and a series 

 of 31 skulls of the Kadiak Bear. In completeness, for the 

 area principally worked, and in the quality of the material 

 obtained, the results merit the highest praise. The field of 

 operation was mainly in the Cassiar District of northern 

 British Columbia, as shown by the following brief statement 

 of the itinerary. 



Mr. Stone left New York April 5, to outfit at Seattle, Wash- 

 ington. He left Seattle April 25, via Juneau, for Sand Point, 

 Alaska, where he arrived May 12. From Sand Point an ex- 

 pedition was made to the Stevana flats, seventy-five miles 

 inland, for the purpose of procuring specimens of the big 

 brown bear (Ursus merriami of the Stone Expedition report 

 for i9oi 2 ) discovered by him in 1901, and incidentally to 

 obtain accessories for a group of the Grant Caribou, also dis- 

 covered by him in 1901.3 While successful in this last par- 

 ticular, the month's hunt for bears proved futile, only three 

 bears being seen and none obtained. The reason for this 

 failure is thus stated in Mr. Stone's report on the season's 

 work: "All the large bears of western Alaska are rapidly be- 

 coming exterminated. Most of the country inhabited by 

 them is easy of access, and in many places the cover is very 

 slight for such large animals. There is every evidence that 

 they were once very plentiful on Stevana flats and in the 

 mountains surrounding the flats. Well-worn, but old trails 

 are numerous, and reports of large numbers being killed there 



1 For an account of the origin, maintenance, and proposed work of the Andrew J. 

 Stone Expedition see this Bulletin, Vol. XVI, 1902, p. 125. 



2 See this Bulletin, Vol. XVI, 1902, pp. 141, 227. 



3 L. c., pp. 119-127. 



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