144 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 



flight that the hunter has to wait until the geese are well past before he cau shoot them to au 

 advantage. A nearly constant stream of geese fly round a certain point, just to the left of the 

 Crooked Canal, on a slight eminence, formed from the deposit of soil torn up by some immense 

 ice cake, which the high tides of some December in years long gone by, had left as the water 

 receded and the warm weather of spring had melted; now overgrown with patches of rank 

 vegetation. 



At a convenient distance a native prepares a fragrant pot of tea, with slices of bacon and 

 some hard bread, to be eaten when a surfeit of sport caused one to think of else than the slaughter 

 of geese and ducks. 



By ten o'clock the geese were done flying for that morning. The low character of the ground 

 did not favor approach to the geese feeding at the ponds. During the middle of the day a quiet 

 sleep iuvigorated the hunter for the late evening shooting. The latter generally affording a less 

 number of geese than the morning's shooting. 



By the next morning a sufficient number of geese were obtained to heavily load a sledge; 

 drawn by six, lusty Eskimo dogs, assisted by two sturdy natives. This sport generally lasts from 

 the arrival of the geese until the first week of June. At this time they repair to the breeding- 

 grounds. During the summer the geese are not hunted. The eggs are eagerly sought by the na : 

 tives and whites and take the place of meat of the birds. In the latter part of August or the early 

 part of September the fall shooting begins, as the geese have moulted, the young are able to fly, and 

 they are fatteuiug on the ripening berries. The geese are now obtained by watching the ponds, or 

 as they fly over in small flocks or singly. Should a flock not fly sufficiently near, a favorite method 

 to attract their attention is for the hunter to lie on his back, swing his arms and hat, kick up his 

 legs, and imitate the call of the geese. It rarely fails to bring them within distance, and may, if 

 several be just shot from their ranks, be repeated, and even a third time. Later in the season, when 

 cool and frosty nights are regular, great numbers of the geese are i Med and disemboweled for 

 freezing to keep throughout the winter. The feathers are left on the birds, for the flesh is said to 

 keep in better condition. The body is washed out and the bird hung up by the neck in the ice. 

 house to keep, even until the geese have arrived the next spring. The flesh, when thawed out 

 slowly, has lost all the rank taste, and, in my opinion, is much improved by the freezing process. 



1 have eaten the flesh of all the various kinds of geese, frequenting those northern regions, and 

 place them in value of flesh as follows : White-fronted Goose, A. albifrons gambelli ; White cheeked 

 Goose, B. canadensis hutchirtsii and B. canadensis minima; Canada Goose, B. canadensis; Black 

 Brant B. nigricans, and is always tough and lean, fit food only for a Russian ; Snow Goose, Chen 

 hyperboreuSj is scarcely fit for food, except in cases of necessity. Its flesh is coarse, rank, and has 

 a decidedly unpleasant odor ; the Emperor Goose, P. canagica, is scarcely to be thought of as food. 

 There is a disgusting odor about this bird that can only be removed in a degree, and then only 

 by taking off the skin and freezing the body for a time. Even this does not rid the flesh entirely 

 of its strong taste. 



180. Olor Columbian us (Ord). Whistling Swan. 



The Whistling Swan is a common bird in the Yukon district. It arrives about the 1st of May, 

 or in open years two weeks earlier. The Swan and the Great Gull, L. barrovianus, are nearly con- 

 temporaneous in arrival. They do not arrive in large flocks, but rather in a straggling manner of 

 one, two, or three at a time, and rarely are seen iu greater numbers than half a dozen at a time. 



It breeds abundantly along the lowlands of the coast. The eggs are one to three in number, 

 placed in a tussock of grass that grows in a pond a way from the margin of it. The eggs are soiled 

 white to slightly fulvous in color. The young are able to leave the nest by the first week iu July, 

 and fly by the middle of September. They migrate about the middle of October, aud at this time 

 the migration is invariably to the northward from Saint Michael's, and directed toward the head of 

 Norton Sound. As many as five hundred may form a single line, flying silently just over the shore 

 line at a height of less than 600 feet. I always suspected that these birds flew to the northward as 

 far as the Ulukuk Portage, in about 65° 30' north latitude, so as to get to the Yukon River at 

 Nulato, about 120 miles in the interior of the Territory, and continue their flight up the Yukon 

 River, which would in its course let these birds more easily cross the Rocky Mountain ridge with 



