130 THE WILD FOWL AND GAME ANIMALS OF ALASKA 



against letting any one know of their plan to go on a bear hunt. 

 They believe firmly that if they should speak of such intention 

 these animals would know it at once and would lie in ambush 

 to attack them. Bears figure largely in the folk-lore and cere- 

 monial dances of the Eskimos on the lower Kuskokwim and 

 Yukon rivers. 



About the Arctic coast the polar bear is a regular winter visitor, 

 and a half-grown individual was killed near St Michael in Au- 

 gust, 1880. They are common on the pack-ice of the Arctic 

 ocean north of Bering strait, and many were seen during the 

 cruise of the Qorwin in 1881. The accompanying illustration 

 represents a female killed by the writer near Wrangel island, 

 while with the Corwin. In summer these animals are usuall) r 

 well fed and avoid encountering men whenever possible. In 

 winter, when hunger presses, they become dangerous, and I have 

 heard of several Eskimos who were killed and have seen others 

 who were badly scarred from encounters with them. 



In the fall, as the pack-ice comes south through Bering strait, it 

 brings great herds of walruses and many white bears. The latter 

 sometimes reach the Fur-Seal islands, but only at rare intervals. 

 Some years many of the bears fail to retreat beyond the strait 

 early enough in spring and are left stranded on St Matthew and 

 St Lawrence islands. During the summer of 1874 Mr Elliott 

 and Lieut Ma} r nard found them on St Matthew island to the 

 number of several hundred. When these gentlemen landed 

 on the neighboring Hall island the same season sixteen white 

 bears were in sight as the boat approached the shore, ten of 

 which were together on the beach. Quite a number were killed 

 and none showed fight. They were fat and when asleep were 

 easily approached. When aroused they stood up and sniffed at 

 the part}" as if to learn whether they were friends or foes, and 

 when the men were scented the bears ran back into the hills. 

 At this time they were seen feeding on grass and roots, with 

 motions like those of a grazing hog. 



Aside from the whales, the walrus is the largest Alaskan mam- 

 mal. Formerly it was very numerous around the islands and 

 along the American coast of Bering sea and the Arctic ocean. 

 During the cruise of the Corwin we saw thousands of them on 

 the border of the pack-ice. The Eskimos report the female wal- 

 ruses to be very dangerous in April and May, when the} 7 have 

 young. At that time they say an old female will attack a man 

 in a kyak on sight, and becomes as fierce and dangerous as an 



