GAME OF THE KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA 
425 
This because the caribou is a wander- 
ing and uncertain animal to find in such 
a Hmitless country ; because the moose 
frequently remain concealed for months 
during the summer in thickets of alder 
and willow at the edge of the timber 
line ; because the bears, besides being 
largely nocturnal, hide most of the time 
in the densest jungles or feed high up 
the slopes on the tender grasses and wild 
berries until the coming of the salmon; 
because the sheep and the goats habitu- 
ally occupy the higher ranges beyond the 
valleys of the larger streams. 
Thus unless a side hunt is made back 
and up into the game country, one might 
often think that interior Alaska was a 
barren and tenantless waste, did not the 
old tracks in the clay bottoms and higher 
sandbars faithfully register the former 
visits of the hoofed and clawed animals 
of this mysterious and little-known wil- 
derness. 
AN immi;nse; coastline 
To one who has not followed a portion 
of the Alaskan coast, with its tens of 
thousands of islands, deep bays, exten- 
sive promontories, and countless chan- 
nels, where the main shore for miles is 
walled in with precipitous glaciers or by 
the highest mountains, and who has not 
also penetrated sufficiently into the inte- 
rior to understand the changes wrought 
by the difference in climate and topogra- 
phy, it is difficult to present a clear and 
adequate outline of this great area and 
its diversified conditions. 
The general contour of the coast is 
known to many and its devious channels 
to a lesser number of experienced navi- 
gators. Where the interior is opened up 
by navigable streams or where the val- 
leys and low divides allow the use of the 
pack-trains or the sleds and the adjacent 
mountains permit an unobstructed view, 
sometimes exceeding a hundred miles in 
circumference, it naturally follows that 
sufficient data has been obtained to dot 
and trace the small scale maps with an 
imposing array of mountains, lakes, gla- 
ciers, well - defined river - courses and 
tributary streams. 
But, excluding the coast survey, less 
than 20 per cent of the interior is mapped, 
and detailed surveys represent a very 
minor portion of this (see map, p. 424). 
Until a permanently organized topo- 
graphic corps is permitted to plan and 
pursue its work in a continuous and sys- 
tematic way, instead of hurrying from 
one part of the country to another, as the 
mining camps or other interests seek 
assistance, the interior of Alaska can be 
known only in a fragmentary way from 
the early surveys of the War Department 
and the later records of the Geological 
Survey, which in recent years has done 
such splendid work in locating and ap- 
praising the mineral wealth and possi- 
bilities of the country and in suggesting 
the most feasible routes for its develop- 
ment. 
One main difficulty in presenting a 
general geographic view of our last re- 
maining continental Territory is not be- 
cause it exceeds 600,000 square miles, or 
on account of its remoteness, but because 
Alaska is the most complex and irregu- 
larly shaped area of the size in the world, 
A good example is the Kenai Peninsula, 
which, with a total length of 150 miles, 
has a shore-line of more than 1,000 — and 
a glance at the map, pages 428 and 429, 
will explain the reason. 
Alaska lies on either side of the Arctic 
circle, is in both the Western and East- 
ern hemispheres, by reason of its west- 
erly extension, and possesses a coast-line 
of 26,000 miles, exceeding the aggregate 
of the United States on the Atlantic, 
Gulf, and Pacific shores if we include in 
such survey the deeper indentations and 
the various groups of islands, one of 
which, the Alexander Archipelago, em- 
braces more than 11,000 islands. The 
narrow chain of the Aleutian group ex- 
tends, at right angles, more than 800 
miles and within eyesight of Russian ter- 
ritory, where when the sun is setting in 
June it is rising on the Maine coast. 
PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC DIVISIONS 
There are two comparatively distinct 
ocean areas on the Alaskan coast, sepa- 
rated by the Alaska Peninsula and its 
segmented extension, the Aleutian chain, 
which, largely intercepting the northerly 
flow of the Japanese current, also create 
marked climatic differences. 
South of this barrier the warm cur- 
rent keeps the subarctic harbors open all 
the year ; the humid air, coming in con- 
