132 THE CONDOR Vol.. IX 



We skinned him next morning and found that four shots had hit him. He had 

 several old scars that showed that he had fallen before, but if you would look at 

 some of the places that they go you would not be surprised. The fur was poor but 

 the skull was about as large as the largest we have. The next day we hunted 

 beaver and got two beaver cubs. 



The next morning Hasselborg and I started out for Ptarmigan. We climbed 

 up a ways and it began to get steep and cliffy and we came to some terrible places 

 where we scarcely could go at all; we often had to turn back and hunt a better place. 

 The ravines were filled with snowslides part way up; a swift stream came down and 

 had thawed a large cavity out at the top and had undermined and made a passage 

 below the snow. While I was crossing one of these slides the snow gave way and I 

 fell in. I hung onto the gun and that was all that saved me from being put into 

 cold storage for eternity, as the slides rarely melt. The gun caught on each side 

 of the hole and I did some pretty lively scrambling, I can tell you! 



When we got up on top it began to blow and snow, but there were small patches 

 of heather that were bare, and the snow was hard enough to walk on. As we 

 neared the summit I saw what looked like a pigeon circling around; but pretty soon 

 it came closer and I saw that it was a Ptarmigan. They would fly out over the 

 mountain side and let out a rasping cackle which sounds just like some one running 

 a nail over the teeth of a stiff comb. Then they would hover for an instant and 

 finally swoop down and light on a rock. I only saw five, but I got three of them. 

 They were all males still in white winter plumage (May 31). One was just 

 beginning to get a few dark brown feathers on his head and neck. Hasselborg saw 

 a female the day before which was mostly brown, but we walked all over every bare 

 space near the summit without scaring any up. He also saw what must have been 

 a L,eucosticte, but we could not find any of them again. The Ptarmigan have a 

 black line thru the eye and are comparatively small so I suppose that they are Rock 

 Ptarmigan. Hasselborg says that there are some here that have an entirely white 

 head in the winter and are larger, so I guess the Willow must be here too. We had 

 a hard time getting down the mountain and came to a place where we crawled down 

 some alders and hung on to some twigs and peeked over. There was a 75-foot cliff 

 below us and we had to go a mile to get around it. I started to slip in one place 

 and grabbed a sharp rock that tore a big hole in the side of my hand, but I had to 

 grab something or I would have gone clear down to the lake. 



We saw two immense bears up on the mountain side but they were in a place 

 that we could not climb to. It is surprising where they can go. They are big and 

 heavy but they can go lots of places where a man can't. 



I was looking over your "Special Desiderata." We are trying to make a big 

 hole in it. Have the Ptarmigan, four pairs of grouse, and a pair with nest and set 

 of eggs of Sharp-shinned Hawk. Saw a pair of Redtails but could not get them. 

 Stephens and Hasselborg are up to the lakes now and I think that they will get 

 some L,eucostictes . 



We saw several Townsend Warblers over at Windfall Harbor, but none here. 

 Varied Thrushes are quite common here but are hard to get. We have everything 

 that you got at Sitka (of the land birds) except eight species. In addition we have 

 White-winged Crossbill, Northern Redbreasted Sapsucker, Pine Siskin, Myrtle 

 Warbler, Redbreasted Nuthatch, and possibly some others that I do not remember 

 without looking them up. 



Miss Alexander is going to Juneau in a day or two to see what has become of 

 our launch. We have been waiting for it for over a month now but the weather 

 has been bad. Our next stopping place will be Red Bluff Bay on Baranof Island, 



