I'liuto liy Ceorj^c Shiras, 3rd 

 BUxVCII OP SHl'P.P, WHICH WERE BADLY FRIGHTENED WHEN PHOTOGRAPHED, 

 RUNNING UP A ROUGH MOUNTAIN ( SEE PAGE 481') ) 



How this accident happened is, of 

 course, a matter of surmise : l:)ut not un- 

 likely the mother had rushed in between 

 her young- and the edge of the great cliff 

 as it gamboled recklessly near, and slip- 

 ping over left her offspring wondering at 

 the audacity of the leap. lUit be this as 

 it may, we know that when time ]iasscd 

 and the mother failed to return the little 

 fellow by a circuitous trail reached the 

 bottom of the pass, to be no nearer than 

 before to the only one it loved. 



I^et us trust that before the long hours 

 of the summer day had passed the little 

 lamb saw a white line zigzagging into 

 the valley, which he dimly knew was the 

 pastoral range of his mother's clan, and 

 approaching found a welcome within the 

 ranks, and no less so because he came 

 alone. 



SU.MMARY OF GAMlC CONDITIONS ON THE 

 PENINSUEA 



On our return from the mountain 

 country the camp was located at the fur- 

 ther end of Caribou Island, a few miles 

 west of Double-bay camp, and opposite 

 the moose lick. 



This island is about three-quarters of 

 a mile long, with a maximum width of 



a third, and, excepting a few acres of 

 pine, is co\'ered with a vigurcjus second 

 growth and some swamp land, the result, 

 probably, of the same lire which cleared 

 so much of the shore opposite. 



And here it may be remarked that. 

 howe\'er wasteful in a commercial sense 

 may have been many of the forest fires 

 in the wilder porticjns of our continent, 

 they nevertheless ha^•e nften been of 

 corresponding benefit to the game and 

 range stock. The replacement of dense 

 and often stunted and useless conifers 

 with poplar, birch, cherrv, oak, beech, 

 ma])le, and the subsequent appearance, 

 also, of meadows and glades co^-ered 

 with grass, moss, bushes, and small herb- 

 age, has done much in the way of sup- 

 ph'ing an abundant and nutritious vari- 

 ety of winter and summer food, valuable 

 alike to the larger game animals, domes- 

 tic stock, pack horses, many game birds, 

 and small quadrupeds, few of which re- 

 sort to or can thrive throughout the year 

 in the dense, dark evergreens of the 

 Xorth. 



In recent years hundreds of thousands 

 of acres of such second growth have 

 sprung up in Alaska, and nowhere has 

 it been of greater advantage to game and 



491 



