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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



tact with the snow-covered coastal 

 ranges and the glacier-filled valleys, pro- 

 ■duces a most extraordinary precipitation 

 in rain or snow according to the season. 



To the north, Bering Sea remains 

 -clogged with floating ice well into sum- 

 mer, and when the open water finally 

 permits navigation to the Yukon delta 

 and beyond, the warm moist air of the 

 Japanese current, passing freely over 

 the Aleutian chain, comes in contact with 

 the cooler waters beyond and creates a 

 ■dense and almost perpetual summer fog. 

 Sometimes it may take several days to 

 £nd and effect a landing on the Pribilof, 

 -or fur-seal islands, and then, like as not, 

 the islands are finally located by the cry 

 -of the seal pups or the pungent odors 

 from the breeding rookeries. 



In a similar way the land area of 

 Alaska has two distinct divisions. To 

 *the south and the east of the Alaska 

 Range the country is rugged and moun- 

 tainous, with valleys great and small and 

 rivers swift and numerous, as necessary 

 incidents, while to the north and north- 

 •«ast it is low and rolling, the streams 

 more sluggish and separating into many 

 channels on approaching the Pacific and 

 Arctic coasts. Climatically the interior 

 •cannot be divided so readily. At the 

 same altitude and period it is warmer in 

 summer than on the coast and much 

 colder in winter, the local variations oc- 

 -curring in the mountainous country, as 

 might be expected, where the elevations 

 range from 2,000 to 20,000 feet. 



Of the two big-game animals particu- 

 larly sought on this trip, one, the moose, 

 was to furnish, if successful, a vale- 

 -dictory chapter of its many years' obser- 

 vation, and in the most westerly and 

 -northerly of the five districts into which 

 the writer had endeavored to divide the 

 continental range of this animal,* and 

 the other was the beautiful white sheep 

 -of the subarctic mountains, a variety 

 with which I had no personal acquaint- 

 ance, but now desired to cultivate in an 

 entirely friendly way. 



To stalk, study, and photograph for 

 the last time the largest, most unique, 

 and impressive of our antlered animals, 



*See articles by George Shiras, 3rd, in the 

 Nationai, Geographic Magazine, 1906 and 

 ago8. 



and then when this was accomplished to 

 seek out on the rough mountain tops the 

 snowy descendants, or perhaps in reality 

 the progenitors of the Big Horn sheep 

 of the Rockies, constituted a program 

 sufficient in itself, though plenty of sen- 

 sitive plates were in reserve for any 

 other animals or birds worthy of por- 

 traiture. 



To obtain satisfactory results from a 

 first and rather brief exploration into a 

 new and unsettled country, I think as 

 much depends upon the comparative ac- 

 cessibility of the game field as upon the 

 comparative abundance of the game 

 itself. 



The Kenai Peninsula, lying between 

 Cook Inlet on the west and Prince Wil- 

 liam's Sound on the east, distant 1,500 

 miles from Seattle, was selected as not 

 only the most accessible in territory and 

 in the abundance of its game, but be- ■ 

 cause in this favored region the moose 

 and mountain sheep reached their high- 

 est perfection in physical development 

 and, what was of equal importance, were 

 to be found with certainty in well-de- 

 fined ranges in this semi-island home. 



THE KENAI PENINSULA A MINIATURE 



ALASKA 



It is seldom that a small, semi-de- 

 tached portion of a large and diversified 

 country can satisfactorily portray the 

 whole, not only in the romantic history 

 of its discovery and early explorations, 

 but in those present-day conditions, 

 where the climate, topography, and eco- 

 nomic resources excite attention and 

 comparison. Were all of Alaska erased 

 from the map except the Kenai Penin- 

 sula and its immediately adjacent waters, 

 there. would yet remain in duplicate that 

 which constitutes the more unique and 

 that which typifies the whole of this won- 

 derful country. 



This is true of its tribal races and 

 mixed descendants, of the hardy pioneers 

 in well-governed settlements, where with 

 the best of harbors, a railroad leading to 

 the interior, steamships and cable lines 

 to the outer world, they enjoy nearly all 

 the advantages of modern civilization. 



It is true, too, of the forests, herbage, 

 wild fruits and flowers, the game and 

 commercial fish, the native and migra- 



