GAME OF THE KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA 



425 



This because the caribou is a wander- 

 ing and uncertain animal to find in such 

 a Hmitless country ; because the moose 

 frequently remain concealed for months 

 during the summer in thickets of alder 

 and willow at the edge of the timber 

 line ; because the bears, besides being 

 largely nocturnal, hide most of the time 

 in the densest jungles or feed high up 

 the slopes on the tender grasses and wild 

 berries until the coming of the salmon ; 

 because the sheep and the goats habitu- 

 ally occupy the higher ranges beyond the 

 valleys of the larger streams. 



Thus unless a side hunt is made back 

 and up into the game country, one might 

 often think that interior Alaska was a 

 barren and tenantless waste, did not the 

 old tracks in the clay bottoms and higher 

 sandbars faithfully register the former 

 visits of the hoofed and clawed animals 

 of this mysterious and little-known wil- 

 derness. 



AN IMMENSE COASTLINE 



To one who has not followed a portion 

 of the Alaskan coast, with its tens of 

 thousands of islands, deep bays, exten- 

 sive promontories, and countless chan- 

 nels, where the main shore for miles is 

 walled in with precipitous glaciers or by 

 the highest mountains, and who has not 

 also penetrated sufficiently into the inte- 

 rior to understand the changes wrought 

 by the difiference in climate and topogra- 

 phy, it is difficult to present a clear and 

 adequate outline of this great area and 

 its diversified conditions. 



The general contour of the coast is 

 known to many and its devious channels 

 to a lesser number of experienced navi- 

 gators. Where the interior is opened up 

 by navigable streams or where the val- 

 leys and low divides allow the use of the 

 pack-trains or the sleds and the adjacent 

 mountains permit an unobstructed view, 

 sometimes exceeding a hundred miles in 

 circumference, it naturally follows that 

 sufficient data has been obtained to dot 

 and trace the small scale maps with an 

 imposing array of mountains, lakes, gla- 

 ciers, well - defined river - courses and 

 tributary streams. 



But, excluding the coast survey, less 

 than 20 per cent of the interior is mapped, 

 and detailed surveys represent a very 

 minor portion of this (see map, p. 424)- 



Until a permanently organized topo- 

 graphic corps is permitted to plan and 

 pursue its work in a continuous and sys- 

 tematic way, instead of hurrying from 

 one part of the country to another, as the 

 mining camps or other interests seek 

 assistance, the interior of Alaska can be 

 known only in a fragmentary way from 

 the early surveys of the War Department 

 and the later records of the Geological 

 Survey, which in recent years has done 

 such splendid work in locating and ap- 

 praising the mineral wealth and possi- 

 bilities of the country and in suggesting 

 the most feasible routes for its develop- 

 ment. 



One main difficulty in presenting a 

 general geographic view of our last re- 

 maining continental Territory is not be- 

 cause it exceeds 600,000 square miles, or 

 on account of its remoteness, but because 

 Alaska is the most complex and irregu-* 

 larly shaped area of the size in the world. 

 A good example is the Kenai Peninsula, 

 which, with a total length of 170 miles, 

 has a shore-line of more than 1,000 — and 

 a glance at the map, pages 428 and 429, 

 will explain the reason. 



Alaska lies on either side of the Arctic 

 circle, is in both the Western and East- 

 ern hemispheres, by reason of its west- 

 erly extension, and possesses a coast-line 

 of 26,000 miles, exceeding the aggregate 

 of the United States on the Atlantic, 

 Gulf, and Pacific shores if we include in 

 such survey the deeper indentations and 

 the various groups of islands, one of 

 which, the Alexander Archipelago, em- 

 braces more than 11,000 islands. The 

 narrow chain of the Aleutian group ex- 

 tends, at right angles, more than 800 

 miles and within eyesight of Russian ter- 

 ritory, where when the sun is setting hi 

 June it is rising on the Maine coast. 



PHYSICAI, AND CLIMATIC DIVISIONS 



There are two comparatively distinct 

 ocean areas on the Alaskan coast, sepa- 

 rated by the Alaska Peninsula and its 

 segmented extension, the Aleutian chain, 

 which, largely intercepting the northerly 

 flow of the Japanese current, also create 

 marked climatic dififerences. 



South of this barrier the warm cur- 

 rent keeps the subarctic harbors open all 

 the year ; the humid air, coming in con- 



