^^11] Swarth: Alaska Expedition of 1909. 115 



everywhere intersected by a network of deer trails, extending in 

 all directions. The narrow channels between the islands are 

 evidently no barriers to this animal, for deer are found on every 

 island of any size in the entire archipelago. To just what extent 

 they continue to cross the wider arms of the sea it is impossible 

 to say, but they were occasionally seen swimming long distances, 

 and also observed on small islets in the bays which must have 

 been just casually visited. 



Four adult females were preserved (nos. 8336-8339), from 

 Etolin, Zarembo, Mitkof, and Kupreanof islands. No bucks were 

 preserved, those that were shot being in the process of shedding 

 and having large areas quite naked of hair. They were without 

 horns, of course, but shed antlers were frequently found wherever 

 we went and I saved a number from Kupreanof, Kuiu, Coro- 

 nation, Warren, Heceta, and Prince of Wales Island. Later in 

 the year, in November, Hasselborg visited Freshwater Bay, on 

 the east side of Chichagof Island, and near the northern extremity 

 of the Alexander Archipelago, and he there collected a series 

 of seven bucks which he sent to the Museum (nos. 8980-8986). 

 Of four of these, the specimens consist of the entire skin with the 

 skull ; the other three, of the skin of the head and neck, together 

 with the skull. He also sent in a shed antler from the same 

 place. A comparison of the antlers of these deer with those 

 from the more southern islands is of decided interest (see plate 

 3). The seven Chichagof bucks were all in the prime of life, all 

 taken at the same place and at the same time, and their antlers are 

 wonderfully uniform in size and shape. They are dark, reddish 

 brown in color, rather stout, and beautifully symmetrical, more 

 so than those of any other black-tail deer I have seen. Two of 

 them have two prongs starting from the main antler, beside the 

 short snag at the base, two have two prongs on one side and one 

 on the other, while three have but one prong and the basal snag 

 on the antler on each side. The striking point about them, how- 

 ever, is that not one of the series forks dichotomously, while of 

 the shed horns picked up on the more southern islands, all do, 

 except one or two small single-tined antlers. I examined in the 

 field many shed antlers which we did not save, and all were of 

 the same pattern. On the other hand I saw many mounted heads 



