THE WILD FOWL AND GAME ANIMALS OF ALASKA 129 



In the high mountains bordering the Pacific coast, north of 

 Sitka, mountain goats occur, but we have little definite informa- 

 tion concerning their range and abundance. Owing to the white 

 color of Dall's sheep, it is quite probable that in many cases they 

 may have been mistaken for goats. 



Bears also are very numerous in some places, and several kinds 

 are known to occur. The huge bear of Kaeliak and the Alaskan 

 peninsula is the largest species in the world, and the skull of an 

 old male looks as if he belonged to the animal life of a former 

 geologic age, when beasts of gigantic size roamed the earth. 

 Black bears are generally distributed over the mainland, except 

 on the barren tundras bordering the Arctic coast. About the 

 last of October or first of November they find a sheltered cleft or 

 cavern in the rocks, where they make a bed of leaves and grasses 

 and hibernate until the warm days of April bring them out again. 

 On the upper Yukon the Indians kill them with arrows, guns, 

 or spears. Some of the bravest and most powerful of the hunters 

 will attack them armed only with a long-bladed knife. In such 

 cases the hunter wraps a blanket about his left hand and arm, 

 and with it thus protected thrusts it out for the bear to seize as 

 it rises upon its haunches, giving him an opportunity to make a 

 fatal thrust under the guard thus formed. Both Eskimos and 

 Indians give these animals credit for supernatural knowledge 

 and cunning. The Eskimo hunters are very careful not to speak 

 in a disrespectful manner of bears, and are especially guarded 



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