THE WILD FOWL AND GAME ANIMALS OF ALASKA 131 



old bear. An Eskimo living at Cape Vancouver once told me 

 of an encounter he had had with a walrus while seal hunting in 

 the drift-ice off the cape, in which he and a companion had a 

 narrow escape. They met and killed a young walrus without 

 having seen the female. A moment later she arose in the water 

 and, catching sight of the hunters, uttered a hoarse bellowing 

 cry and dashed at them. The men paddled for their lives and 

 reached a cake of ice just in time to escape. Here they were 

 kept prisoners for nearly a day. Several times, supposing she 

 had gone, they launched their kyaks, but the moment they did 

 so she appeared and drove them back on the ice. During our 

 cruise in the Arctic we saw many females with young, and the 

 watchfulness of the old ones was very noticeable. The young 

 nearly always swam directly in front of its mother, and the 

 latter, in diving, always carried the little one under with her by 

 resting the points of her tusks on its shoulders and forcing it 

 down. 



In the old days, when caribou were abundant, wolves were 

 common and ran in large packs. With the growing scarcity of 

 caribou the wolves decreased, until, during my residence at St 

 Michael, they were uncommon along the coast of Bering sea 

 and the adjacent interior. The white and blue arctic or stone 

 foxes are common on the barrens, and red foxes are also com- 

 mon and much more widely distributed. The region about 

 Dawson City was formerly noted for the number and quality of 

 the black fox skins taken there every winter. Canada lynxes, 

 wolverines, land otter, American sable and mink are among the 

 fur-bearing animals which helped make up the main wealth of 

 Alaska until recent developments. 



Among the " rats and mice and such small deer " are many ani- 

 mals of more or less interest. The whistling marmots live in the 

 mountains about the upper Yukon and Tanana rivers, and the 

 bob-tailed little conies are also found in that region. The last- 

 named animal makes its home in broken masses of rock and has 

 an amusing way of barking at strange visitors with a squeaking 

 voice like that of a toy dog. 



The great increase in the population of Alaska which is now 

 taking place cannot but have a decided effect upon the large 

 game. Most of the prospecting parties will be provided with 

 rifles and will tike every opportunity of securing an addition to 

 their scanty camp fare. With this going on in thousands of lo- 

 calities in the hitherto unvisited areas, the effect will necessarily 



