64 If J SKOX 



blue and the more common white the one bringing a.- much as $140 

 for fur, the other worth only S 1 2 to $00. 



The beaver, formerly the mosl important from a commercial stand- 



poinl of North American mammals, and one intimately connected 



with the early history and exploration of the continent, 



Beaver i . i . i 



i- represented aci ively at work. 

 At the cud of tin- hall i- .-i group of Roosevelt elk found in the Coast 

 Roosevelt Range from British Columbia to Northern California. 

 Elk and Once abundant, they have become much reduced in 



Mountain numbers, though an effort is now being made to preserve 

 Shee P them. <)n the opposite side of the hall are the mountain 



sheep of bighorns. 



Nearby is a group of Atlantic walrus, a huge relative of the seal, once 

 found in vast herds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and still 



W'i,l rim 



fairly abundanl along the shores of Greenland. The seal 

 and walrus are the animals which play such an important part in the life 

 of the Eskimo. From these animals come the principal food supply, skins 

 for clothing, for fishing and hunting gear, boat covers, and harnesses for 

 dog team-: from bones and tusks are made knives, harpoons, and other 

 hunting and cooking utensils. 



Pronghom The handsome pronghorn antelope, peculiar to North 



Antelope America, once found in vast numbers on the western 



plains, is now verging on extinction. 



p The peccary, one of two species of the pig family peculiar to 



America, is really an intruder from South America. Though 

 naturally vicious, it is readily tamed. 



Boreal Placed here for lack of room elsewhere are the Polar 



Mammals Bear and other " boreal mammals." 



The fur seal group belongs in the projected Hall of Ocean Life. It 

 -hows a small harem, or family, of these animals which furnish the 

 Fur Seal valuable sealskin coats, the stages in the preparation of 



the skin being shown nearby. These valuable animals 

 were threatened with commercial extermination through pelagic sealing, 

 but since this has been stopped, the herds have- increased until there 

 were in 1918 about 500,000 on the Pribilof Islands. 



The polar bears obtained by Peary belong with the boreal mammals as 

 do the muskoxen which inhabit the Arctic barrens, living mainly on 

 Polar Bear willow leaves which they paw up from beneath the snow. 

 Muskox An effort is being made to protect and domesticate these 



animals, not only for their flesh but for their long wool. 



Several species of caribou or reindeer are shown: Grant's caribou from 

 western Alaska, the fine woodland caribou which inhabits Newfoundland. 



