Forest and Strea 
Six Months, $1.50. 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1913. 
VOL. LXXXI.-No. 20. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Alaska, the White Man’s Happy Hunting Ground 
W HEN the man who is fond of big-game 
hunting plans a trip for sport and 
recreation, he finds the problem of 
where to go for an enjoyable outing becoming 
each year more difficult to solve. In pioneer 
days the hunting grounds of the United States 
were famous all over the world. Gradually the 
wild animals retreated before the advancing 
civilization, until now the sportsman realizes 
he must wander far afield to find a region where 
game abounds in sufficient numbers to> insure 
sport. He looks over the game fields of 
America and his eyes turn to Alaska as the 
most promising hunting grounds of Uncle Sam's 
domain. 
Alaska, America’s last frontier, has be¬ 
come known as “the hunter’s paradise.” Here 
he will find a virgin wilderness and game in 
abundance and variety. A country of vast dis¬ 
tances, it is the home of countless wild animals 
which thrive and multiply in regions where they 
are but little disturbed by man. 
The distance from Ketchikan in Southeast¬ 
ern Alaska to Point Barrow on the Arctic is 
nearly as great as the distance from Cuba to 
Greenland on the Atlantic Coast. In a coun¬ 
try of such immense distances, with such large 
sections sparsely populated, game is found as 
plentiful as it was a hundred years ago in por¬ 
tions of the United States. Possessing such a 
varied climate, ranging from the mild region 
of Southeastern and Southwestern Alaska to 
the frozen areas of the Arctic, the territory is 
naturally the home of many different varieties 
of wild animals. 
Although hunting is good in many sections 
of the North, there are several well known por¬ 
tions which have become popular with sports¬ 
men principally, on account of their comparative 
accessibility. These sections include the various 
parts of Southeastern Alaska; the White River 
and Nabesna districts, accessible from Cordova; 
the Kenai district, reached from Seward; the 
Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula region 
and Bering Sea, reached by way of Nome, 
where polar bear, walrus, musk-ox and other 
Arctic animals abound. 
To big-game hunters Alaska probably ap¬ 
peals the strongest. There are four types of 
bear recognized by the hunter of Alaska, the 
brown bear, the grizzly, the black bear, and the 
polar bear. The most numerous and important 
variety is that of the brown bear. Of these 
the gigantic Kodiak bear, of Kodiak Island, is 
foremost among the large animals of the North. 
They are the largest carnivorous animals in the 
world, being aproached in size only by the 
By ROSS MERRICK 
polar bear. There have been specimens killed 
weighing as much as sixteen hundred pounds, 
while the skin of one taken from Kodiak Island 
measured ten feet in width and fifteen feet in 
length. The brown bear range almost exclusive¬ 
ly in the coast regions and are found from ex¬ 
treme Southeastern Alaska to the Alaska Pe¬ 
ninsula and the adjacent islands. The Kodiak 
and other brown bear are not only terrifying 
J. C. TOLMAN, 
Senior Game Warden, Kenai and A'aska Peninsula. 
from their great size and strength, but are often 
dangerous to the travelers and hunters, as well 
as a pest to prospectors, continually destroy¬ 
ing caches and provisions, and frequently when 
come upon unawares pursuing the miners. They 
are great and skillful salmon fishers, though 
vegetarians when the salmon season is past. 
These bear which seem to be a cross between 
a brown bear and a grizzly are known for their 
ferociousness and make excellent hunting for 
the sportsman properly equipped. Their vital¬ 
ity is amazing. They have a reputation for 
their ability to assimilate lead, and unless 
dropped by a brain shot, are dangerous, even 
though suffering from a fatal wound through 
the heart. To the hunter who has never killed 
one of these huge plantigrades and is looking 
for an exciting experience in big-game hunt¬ 
ing, his desire will be gratified in the pursuit 
of this animal. 
The grizzlies are of two varieties, whose 
habits are similar to the grizzly of the United 
States. The Kenai grizzly has his habitat on 
the Kenai Peninsula for which he is named, 
while the interior species range the greater 
part of Alaska, from the St. Elias Alps to the 
Endicott and Alaskan ranges, usually near the 
upper limit of timber. They are said to have 
a reputation for ferocity second only to the 
Kodiak bear. 
Black bear are also plentiful in the North, 
being found wherever evergreen timber grows. 
They roam all over Alaska south and east of 
the Yukon and Kuskokwim tundras. While not 
of excessive size, some have been killed having 
a skin approaching eight feet. They are often 
located with difficulty, as they are quite shy, 
their color harmonizing with their surrounding 
environment. While the coast bear are usually 
black in color, those of the interior are fre¬ 
quently of a cinnamon variety. 
Away from the coast of Alaska is found 
the rare and little known glacier bear. This 
bear is about half the size of the ordinary black 
bear, its distinguishing feature being that its 
shoulders are on a level with its hips, a short 
neck and no hump on its shoulders. These bear 
are of many colors from that of a silver-tipped 
fox and black fox to all shades of the blue fox, 
including the surface blue of the glacier. They 
have a fine pelt which more resembles the fur 
of a fox than that of the bear family. These 
handsome little bear weigh from one hundred 
to> two hundred pounds. These bears cling to 
the glacier wall most of the time, only coming 
down off the glacier for a short time in the 
twilight of the day to feed on berries, grass, 
roots of the wild-pea vine, and to catch salmon. 
This little fellow has won for himself a repu¬ 
tation as a fighter, but is rarely hunted be¬ 
cause of the difficulty in following him over 
the crevassed glaciers. 
Polar bear abound in the Arctic Ocean and 
northern Bering Sea. They come down into 
Bering Sea in large numbers every fall on the 
drift ice, and are found on St. Lawrence and 
St. Matthew islands, where hunting is good. In 
the spring many return north to the Arctic on 
the ice packs. 
The giant Alaska moose, the largest of its 
kind, is found in abundance in Alaska. The 
moose of Alaska are of enormous size, and 
