26 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 217 



20 miles north and south along the Valley and 5 miles east and west, 

 but without going above 4,000 feet. Nests and downy young of many 

 species were found. 



Early in July, after I left Tuluak, Simon Paneak and William 

 Irving for 18 days conducted a combined ornithological and archeo- 

 logical reconnaissance in the Killik Valley from the forks at Easter 

 Creek in the south to Odrivik Lake north of the mountain line, "Wil- 

 liam Irving then returned to Tuluak, where he remained until Sep- 

 tember 1. 



While passing through Bettles, on the Koyukuk River, I fre- 

 quently had short opportunities to examine the birds there, but never 

 for long or at a time favorable for obtaining decisive data on migration. 

 In August 1951, however, John Krog and I were fortunate in being 

 able to make a journey of reconnaissance for three weeks by boat down 

 the Koyukuk to Alatna Village and thence for about 100 miles up 

 the Alatna River to Oscar Creek, just north of the southern mountain 

 line and well within the mountains. 



In late February and March 1952, John Krog and I studied 

 the temperature of birds and mammals with Simon Paneak in the 

 vicinity of Tuluak Lake. In this year the willow ptarmigan were 

 very numerous, caribou moved south and west through the Valley 

 in large numbers, and wolves were frequently in sight. By trap- 

 ping and by his near phenomenal open-sight rifle shooting Simon 

 Paneak took 37 wolves, and the coramunity took 160. 



On our way back from Tuluak, we spent a week on the upper 

 Alatna Malemute in Ernie Johnson's hospitable cabin, located in a 

 spruce-forested valley high in the southern watershed of the moun- 

 tains, where the snowfall is heavy. That spring saw a heavy accumu- 

 lation of late snow in the mountains, particularly on their southern 

 slopes and the rivers on the northern arctic slope were nearly two 

 weeks late in breaking up, so that pilot J. L. Anderson was still 

 able to land a Cessna 170 with wheels on the ice of the lake at Sum- 

 mit on June 12. At Fairbanks, the emergence of buds and leaves was 

 nearly two weeks later than usual. 



Terris Moore, President of the University of Alaska, became inter- 

 ested in seeing the passes through the Arctic momitains, and shortly 

 after commencement, on May 26, we set out in his plane to the head 

 of the Noatak River, where we spent a few days in Howard Pass. 

 From there we flew eastward through the mountain passes, crossing 

 the spectacular trails of a great westward migration of caribou, of 

 which we saw several thousand laggards still moving. We landed in 

 Anaktuvuk Pass, at Summit (called Nakrak by the Eskimo), where 

 for about three weeks I continued to observe the migrant and settling 

 birds in this uncommonly late season. 



