96 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap, vi 



we knew of several other places, and had even passed close 

 by them, where we might have made certain of picking up a 

 fair number of bears. But as we required a good many to 

 fill our permits, and as I was particularly anxious to secure 

 an extra large specimen of the Alaskan brown bear for the 

 British Museum, we had decided to go far away from the 

 beaten track of all former hunting parties in the hopes of 

 getting what we sought. The foolish part of the affair 

 was that we had put all our eggs into one basket, and 

 that basket had broken down badly, as we had fairly burned 

 all bridges behind us in sending away the schooner. On 

 May 29, Glyn decided to make an expedition down the river 

 which flowed towards the Bering Sea, and with this purpose 

 in view he and the two natives set out down stream in the 

 bidarki, taking with them supplies for five or six days. There 

 were at least hopes that he might meet with some caribou, 

 as we could see none round the lake, and the food supply 

 promised to become ere long a serious question. I remained 

 near the lake with Little, where for two days and nights we 

 were treated with samples of what the wind can do on the 

 Alaska Peninsula. It blows there in a peculiar way of its 

 own. The wind seems to come simultaneously from all four 

 quarters of the globe, rushing up and down the valleys, and 

 even if you think you have defeated it by getting on the 

 leeward side of a mountain, it comes rushing round the 

 corner and still hits you in the face. No matter what 

 you may be doing, nor in which direction going, the pre- 

 vailing wind of the Alaska Peninsula is always a head wind, 

 that is, excepting when stalking an animal, and for that 

 purpose the wind seldom seems right. The only engine of 

 discomfort approaching it, which I have ever seen, is a dust 

 storm on the veldt in South Africa ; but in Alaska rain takes 



