284 ]!TATUEAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS Ii>^ ALASKA. 



Owing to the absence of suitable mountains tliese sheep do not occur between the Lower 

 Yukon and Kuskoquim Rivers, but inhabit the bluffs and high mountains along the Yukon above 

 Fort Yukon, and across to the headwaters of the Tanana and Kuskoquim Rivers. 



The three type specimens, and the only ones I obtained, were brought me from some 

 mountains lying about 100 miles southwest of Fort Yukon. They were secured by an Indian 

 under the direction of Mr. L. X. McQuesten, the Alaska Commercial Company's agent iu that region. 

 The animals were killed in the fall and the skins hung in a tree until the following spring when 

 they were brought to the Yukon by boat and turned over to Mr. McQuesten, and finally into my 

 hands. 



When the traders ascend the Yukon in July or August they frequently see some of these ani- 

 mals upon a rocky bluff overhanging the river above Fort Yukon, and by making a circuit and 

 getting above the sheep they have killed several of them there. Jforth of the Yukon they are next 

 found in the Eomanzoff Mountains, from which point they range west to the Kaviak Peninsula 

 near Bering Straits. They are also found abundantly along the courses of the Kowak and ifuna- 

 tog Rivers and thence northwesterly to the vicinity of the Arctic coast, near Cape Lisburne, and 

 elsewhere. 



In August, 1881, 1 saw two of them some 5 or 6 miles inland from Cape Beaufort. When 

 first seen they were feeding on a grassy hill-side not over 600 feet above the sea-level. I ap- 

 proached within about 200 yards of them when a slight breeze sprang up and they winded me and 

 immediately ran up a ravine to the top of a low mountain and disappeared. During this season, 

 while cruising along this coast from Kotzebue Sound to Point Barrow, hundreds of mountain sheep- 

 skins were seen among the Eskimo, and when asked whence these came they always pointed 

 toward the head of the I^Tunatog River, in the interior. The Kotzebue Sound Eskimo also 

 claim that these sheep are very numerous up the Kunatog. All of the skins of this animal seen 

 by me among the Eskimo from the Kuskoquim River to the Arctic coast were of the uniform 

 dingy whitish color characteristic of the race. The hairs are tipped with a sjieck of rusty color, 

 which, upon close examination, gives the hairs the appearance of having been slightly singed at 

 the tips. On the Mackenzie River Richardson found the mountain sheep ranging down to the 

 delta of that stream. They were undoubtedly of the present race. 



On the Siberian side of Bering Straits a species of mountain sheep is known to inhabit the 

 mountains back of Saint Lawrence and Plover Bays, but at the time of our visit there the natives 

 had none of their skins. Some of their horns that the natives had were very slender and very 

 similar to the horns of the Alaskan sheep, and I am inclined to think that the sheep on the two 

 sides of the straits will be found to be very closely related if not identical. 



The horns of the sheep are made into spoons, ladles, and other articles by the Eskimo and 

 are highly prized. The skins are not valued so highly as those of the reindeer, owing to the hair 

 being coarse and brittle. 



MAZA3IA 3io:>iTANA (Ord). Rockv Mountain Goat. 



Biographical notes. — The range of this species is limited to the main range of mountains in the 

 southeastern part of the Territory. A fur trader who lived a number of years on the Pacific coast, 

 in the district between Kadiak Island and Mount Saint Elias, told me that in some parts of the 

 main range, extending along the coast, the goats were rather numerous, occurring in flocks 

 among the cliffs and most rugged parts of the mountains. He related that in fall, when the 

 mountains were covered with snow, the goats were forced to a lower level, and the Indians 

 then hunted them very successfully. South from this district they are found all along the main 

 range. The fur traders who have ascended the Tanana River claim that there are mountain goats 

 in the high mountains about the head of that stream, which is possible, but if so, this is the 

 extreme northern limit of its range in Alaska. 



Rangifee taeandtjs grcenlandicus (Kerr). Barren-ground Caribou, Reindeer 

 (Esk. Twh-tu). 



Two skulls of this species were obtained, one of which, No. 21489 (223), is that of a fawn 

 believed to be one year old. The basi-cranial length is 274""'. All the sutures, including the 



