THE CASE OF THE ALASKAN BROWN BEAR 



For about three years a few people in Alaska have been 

 demanding from the Department of Agriculture the right 

 to hunt Alaskan brown bears all the year round for their 

 pelts, on the amazing ground that the bears seriously inter- 

 fere with the stock-raising industries of Alaska, and later 

 on the further ground that the bears are a menace and a 

 positive danger to the residents of Alaska. A few promi- 

 nent American mammalogists, headed by Dr. C. Hart Mer- 

 riam, have opposed the proposed wholesale slaughter and 

 the extermination of the most interesting carnivorous ani- 

 mal in North America, and the status quo ante helium has 

 been maintained. 



Last spring a citizen of Alaska and an ex-soldier named 

 Clarence Thompson took his rifle and went out bear hunting 

 on Chicagof Island. We are assured that Mr. Thompson 

 went bear hunting by the fact that no other game killable 

 with a rifle was in season at the time of his sad misadven- 

 ture. Mr. Thompson found a bear, fired at it twice, failed 

 to kill it, and the bear injured him so terribly that after a 

 most harrowing experience he died in the Chicagof hos- 

 pital a few days after the encounter. 



Promptly seeking someone on whom to lay the blame for 

 this tragedy, the editor of the Alaska Daily Empire pub- 

 lished a long and violent editorial which from beginning 

 to end virtually held Mr. William T. Hornaday responsible 

 for the death of Mr. Thompson. This was based on a sup- 

 position of pernicious activities in favor of the Alaskan 

 brown bear by the accused party, whose whole burden of 

 offense is to be found in one page of statement and protest 

 in a pamphlet published by the Permanent Wild Life Pro- 



