THE BIG GAME OF ALASKA 



627 



A VERY LARGE BULL CARIBOU KILLED ON THE FLAT TOP OF A HIGH MOUNTAIN 



perhaps on this account the statement is 

 often seen that the Alaska moose will not 

 respond to calling. That it does do so 

 I am amply convinced by an experience 

 in the Yukon Territory while hunting 

 with Mr Carl Rungius the well-known 

 painter of big game. 



One September evening in a good 

 moose country we took a position on a 

 slight elevation overlooking a sparsely 

 wooded flat and began calling. Mr Run- 

 gius, who had had experience in New 

 Brunswick, handled the trumpet. After 

 the fourth call a faint rattle of horns was 

 heard in the distance, perhaps half a mile 

 away. Another call and the horns rat- 

 tled again, this time a little nearer, and 

 soon no doubt remained that a bull 

 moose was coming directly toward us. 

 No animal but a moose could make such 

 a noise. For a time all would be deathly 

 still, and then, crash ! as the horns rat- 

 tled their challenge against the resonant 

 branches of a dead tree. Not long after 

 a second animal was heard coming from 

 another direction, and eventually the 

 ghostly form of a very large moose 



carrying massive antlers stalked in full 

 view across an opening in the trees some 

 300 yards away ; at the same time 

 another, perhaps younger and smaller, 

 was coughing and grunting in a thick 

 clump of trees not 50 yards from us. 



CARIBOU 



The caribou of Alaska consist of sev- 

 eral varieties closely related to or iden- 

 tical with the barren-ground caribou 

 (Raugifer arcticus) of north central 

 Canada. They inhabit the treeless moun- 

 tain ridges of the interior and the rolling 

 tundras of the coast from the Arctic 

 Ocean to the Pacific side of the Alaska 

 Peninsula, feeding almost exclusively on 

 the delicate greenish white lichen called 

 reindeer moss, which grows abundantly 

 throughout the region. 



Owing to their highly gregarious 

 habits and their general stupidity, the 

 caribou are likely to be among the first 

 of Alaska's game animals to be extir- 

 pated. In spite of the open nature of 

 their habitat, they are not sharp-sighted, 

 but depend almost entirely upon scent 



