Vol. XXIII, No. 5 
WASHINGTON 
May, 1912 
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THE WHITE SHEEP, GIANT MOOSE, AND 
SMALLER GAME OF THE KENAI 
PENINSULA, ALASKA 
By George Shiras, 3rd 
Author op " Photographing Wild Game with Flashlight and Camera," 
"One Season's Game Bag with the Camera," and "A Flash- 
light Story of an Albino Porcupine," etc., in 
the National Geographic Magazine 
FOR a number of years the writer 
had in view a trip to northwestern 
Alaska, to study the big-game ani- 
mals and certain varieties of non-migra- 
tory birds, and where the camera, rather 
than the rifle, was to capture the perma- 
nent trophies of the hunt. 
Experience had shown, long before, 
that it was not how far one traveled 
away from home, or how extensive and 
primitive the country, which necessarily 
meant success in the pursuit of wild life. 
Well illustrating this are the virgin for- 
ests and the burnt-over, second-growth 
country immediately north of Lake 
Huron or Lake Superior, now largely 
deserted by the fur traders, the Indian 
trappers, and numerous camp-followers. 
Here one may find a greater variety 
and abundance of big game in a week, 
and sometimes in a single day, than might 
be encountered during an arduous canoe 
journey of several months on any of the 
many open streams leading from the lake 
country to Hudson Bay. All these water- 
ways have been traveled for centuries 
and the remaining game driven back into 
distant quarters. Because of the inhos- 
pitable winter climate, the lack of proper 
food conditions and shelter, most of the 
big game in Ontario, except caribou, is 
found on the southern watersheds drain- 
ing into the Great Lakes. 
So with Alaska. The reports of 
miners, trappers, government explorers, 
and sportsmen, covering many years of 
persistent research, have shown very 
clearly that the mere distance traversed 
in this vast country often meant but little 
in regard to big game, since it was a mat- 
ter of ordinary occurrence for persons 
to travel a thousand or more miles on 
the Yukon and some of its tributaries 
without seeing a single specimen of the 
larger animals. 
One might also journey for a month 
with a pack-train into the interior, cross- 
ing the rough and sodden tundra, the 
willow-tangled swamps, climbing over 
the rock slides of disintegrating moun- 
tains, cutting out trails along the thicket- 
rimmed banks of the larger streams, or 
wading waist deep the swirling, ice- 
chilled waters flowing from the melting 
snowbanks and glaciers of the upper 
valleys, and during all these long days 
of unremitting toil and miles of steady 
progress only a few grouse or an occa- 
sional porcupine might fall to the rifle of 
the weary and ever-hungry traveler. 
