114 University of California Publications in Zoology. [Vol. 7 



absent, tracks of a single individual seen far up the canon, being 

 the only evidence of the presence of the species. This is prob- 

 ably due to the fact that this place, in close proximity to the 

 mainland, is subject to much more severe winters than are the 

 more western islands. Deer are almost unknown along the main- 

 land coast, a single buck seen by Hasselborg at Bradfield Canal 

 being our only record. They were quite abundant on Etolin, 

 Mitkof and Zarembo islands. 



The Alexander Archipelago forms the northern limit of deer 

 in North America, the comparatively mild climate of the islands 

 permitting their existence, though they could not survive on the 

 neighboring mainland. There is an apparent contradiction in 

 the manner of their occurrence here. They are probably more 

 abundant than at any other part of their range, and so 

 conditions would seem to be favorable. But conditions are 

 obviously unfavorable to this extent, that except in the mildest 

 winters large numbers succumb to cold and starvation, while 

 every year the majority of the deer finish the winter in a 

 very enfeebled condition. Those seen early in April were 

 emaciated to a degree, and too feeble and listless to make any 

 great effort to get out of the way, while the woods were fairly 

 strewn with carcasses. On the islands south of Frederick Sound 

 the wolves also do much to reduce their numbers. At our first 

 camp on Kupreanof Island I counted twelve dead deer on the 

 beach within half a mile of camp, and probably half of these 

 had been killed by wolves. At«other points partly dismembered 

 skeletons entangled in masses of windfall, and with the skin of 

 the legs turned inside out, told of the tragedies enacted, even 

 without the added suggestion from the bits of coarse black hair 

 caught on the surrounding twigs. 



Early in April the deer were feeding largely on the tender 

 shoots of the skunk cabbage, about the first green vegetation to 

 appear. A little later they were seen eating the green grass 

 along the stream margins and in the meadows, but during the 

 summer they seemed to subsist largely on the foliage of bushes 

 and shrubbery in the woods. They frequently came down to the 

 beaches, usually in the mornings and evenings, where several 

 were seen eating seaweed, possibly for the salt. The woods were 



