144 University of California Puhlicaiions in Zoology. [Vol. 7 



definitely as possible the range of the big brown bear in this 

 region. Hasselborg is familiar with them, and with their habits 

 and mode of life, having hunted them in other parts of Alaska, 

 and at each point we visited he made it his first object to hunt for 

 bear or signs of their presence. We also questioned prospectors 

 and storekeepers as well as the Indians at every opportunity. 

 There can be no doubt, I believe, that the brown bear do not 

 occur south of Frederick Sound and Christian Sound, on the 

 islands, while on the mainland coast we had not the slightest 

 evidence of their presence anywhere south of Juneau. The 

 Indians on the Kake Islands and on Prince of Wales use the 

 same names as the more northern tribes for the brown and the 

 black bears, but those we interrogated all declared that there 

 were none of the former on their islands. 



On the mainland, where the cinnamon phase of the black bear 

 is of fairly common occurrence, the Indians refer to the cinna- 

 mon colored individuals as brown bear, but they distinguish 

 between these and the big northern brown bear, referring to 

 the latter as the "fighting brown bear." Both white men and 

 Indians declared that there were no large bear immediately along 

 the coast on the mainland, nothing but black bear, though there 

 were grizzlies twenty or thirty miles inland, in a few places. 

 I saw some grizzly skins that had been obtained about that 

 distance from the mouth of the Stikine River, and at the head of 

 Port Snettisham, and on the Taku River Hasselborg saw tracks 

 of what he believed were grizzly bear. 



Black bear are generally distributed over all the larger 

 islands from Kupreanof southward, and all along the mainland 

 coast. Specimens were secured or signs of the very recent pres- 

 ence of bear seen on Kupreanof, Kuiu, Prince of Wales, Heceta, 

 Dall, Revillagigedo, Etolin, Wrangell, and Mitkof islands, and 

 at all the mainland points visited. They appeared to be absent 

 from Coronation, Warren, Duke, and Zarembo islands. The 

 material at hand is not sufficient to demonstrate whether the 

 island bear ranges along the mainland coast immediately 

 adjacent. Several skulls from the Taku Inlet, all of rather young 

 individuals, however, have high, rounded frontals. The young 

 cinnamon bear secured at this point in September (no. 8328) has 

 this part as flat as any of those from the islands. 



