moose are; wary animals 



Moose are very plentiful in certain 

 parts of the new park, but are not so 

 commonly seen as sheep and caribou. As 

 their food supply consists of willow and 

 birch twigs and leaves and the succulent 

 roots of water plants, they stay much of 

 the time in timbered and brushy areas, 

 where they are inconspicuous. By na- 

 ture, too, the moose is a wary animal and 

 permits much less familiarity than the 

 caribou. 



The best moose country in this region 

 lies in the lowlands north of the main 

 Alaska Range, outside of the boundaries 

 of the proposed park ; but some moose 

 were seen within the park lines, and 

 doubtless more of them will take refuge 

 in this game preserve when they are more 

 vigorously hunted in the neighboring re- 

 gions. It is said that there is an excellent 

 moose range within the park, in the area 

 southwest of that which we visited. 



There are some black, brown, and 

 grizzly bears in this district, but the bear 

 hunter has a much better chance of ob- 

 taining a hide in other parts of Alaska 

 than he has here. All told, only eight 

 bears were seen by the members of the 

 two survey parties during the last sum- 

 mer, and bear sign was so little noted in 

 this region that it cannot be considered 

 an especially good bear country. 



The park contains good trapping 

 grounds for the fur hunter, and a num- 

 ber of trappers spend part of each winter 

 there. Foxes are plentiful, and an un- 

 usually large proportion of the pelts 

 taken are of silver gray or black fox. 

 One trapper told me that in Toklat basin 

 the winter's catch for a number of years 

 has yielded one silver gray fox skin for 

 every eight foxes caught, and of the re- 

 maining seven, several are likely to be 

 good cross-fox. We saw a good many 

 foxes and found two dens around which 

 young ones were playing. Lynx are also 

 plentiful, and numerous mink, marten, 

 and ermine have been taken. 



MANY AND BUSY BEAVERS 



Beaver were seen in the park, but are 

 exceptionally abundant in the marshy 

 lowlands north of it. On our trip down 

 Bearpaw River, in the fall, while we were 

 on our way to Tanana, we saw every- 

 where along the banks signs of beaver. 





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A PAGE FROM THE AUTHOR S DIARY, SHOW- 

 ING GAME SEEN IN AND NEAR THE 

 PROPOSED PARK (SEE TEXT) 



Freshly cut cottonwood and willow trees 

 lie along the shores, and the trails used 

 by the beaver to bring sections of trees 

 down the banks were seen at short in- 

 tervals. 



Night after night we would hear the 

 sharp splash of the swimming animals as 

 they whacked their tails upon the surface 

 of the stream. Beaver are protected by 

 law until 1920, and under this protection 

 have greatly increased in numbers. In 

 the lowlands they have so much ob- 

 structed all the smaller streams with their 

 dams that foot travel overland is impos- 

 sible until ice forms. 



In order to give the reader an idea of 

 the abundance and variety of game to be 

 seen by the traveler in the Mount McKin- 

 ley Park, I am showing above a photo- 

 graph of a page taken from my diary, in 

 which I each day made record of the big- 

 game animals I saw. In making my 



7Q 



