614 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. 15, 1913. 
weigh sometimes exceeding sixteen hundred 
pounds. The average spread of their magnifi¬ 
cent antlers is over five feet from tip to tip, 
while there are many record spreads exceeding 
six feet, with a maximum example of six feet 
nine inches. Their range covers practically all 
of timbered Alaska, except in the southeastern 
part. They are found in quite large numbers 
in the Yukon and the Tanana valleys. It does 
not travel far north of the Yukon River. It 
also ranges south into the Kuskokwim valley 
and the Alaskan range, but are especially num¬ 
erous on the Kenai Peninsula, where favorable 
conditions produce specimens of a size un¬ 
equalled elsewhere. Old-timers in the country 
assert that there are at least ten moose here 
where there was one a half dozen years ago, 
and ascribe the increase to the fact that all the 
wolves that were formerly so plentiful have 
been killed off. 
From Kenai Lake down the Kenai River 
to Cook’s Inlet is the herding ground of thou¬ 
sands of these magnificent animals, and in the 
winter they seem to lose much of their fear of 
man that they show in the summer season, and 
may be photographed at will. There is an 
abundance of feed for them in the Kenai River 
valley, and they are all in fine shape for this 
time of year. With proper care and a firm en¬ 
forcement of the game laws that prohibit the 
killing of the cow moose, there will be thou¬ 
sands of these great animals here for years to 
come. 
The caribou of Alaska are the only ones 
found in the United States. Alaskan hunters 
usually divide caribou into two classes—wood¬ 
land caribou and barren ground caribou; but 
scientists say there are three species. The 
Arctic, ranging in North Alaska; the Grant, on 
Alaska Peninsula, and the Stone, on Kenai 
Peninsula. The habitat of the caribou is the 
reindeer moss regions; largely the tundras and 
the barren mountain ridges. Wherever men 
come in numbers the unsuspicious caribou are 
rapidly exterminated or driven away, for they 
are gregarious, are not keen sighted, and dis¬ 
play scant sagacity, including hunters. They 
keep to the open country and rarely enter tim¬ 
ber, so that they are readily found and easily 
slaughtered. They suffer less from the trophy 
hunters than from the meat hunters, who sup¬ 
ply mining camps and prospectors. 
The immense herds of caribou of the North 
move from place to place, generally up and 
down the Tanana valley—from the headwaters 
of the Tanana River north to the Chandler 
country. These herds are levied upon annually 
by the hunters from Forty-Mile, Eagle, Circle 
and the mining towns along the Tanana River. 
The sight of thousands of these animals cross¬ 
ing a trail, taking days to do so, is a strong 
reminder of the former migrations of the 
buffalo on the plains of the West. Every year 
the Fairbanks papers tell of the passage north 
and south of these animals between Fairbanks 
and the Circle district. Herds equally large 
range the little known Arctic slope along the 
Endicott Mountains. 
The pure white Dali variety is the only 
mountain sheep found in Alaska. Near the 
snow line of the mountain ranges, in the Wran¬ 
gell, Endicott, and especially in the Alaskan 
range and Mount McKinley district, they are 
plentiful, though difficult to kill. These white 
sheep are totally different from the dark big 
horn of the Rockies, and only until recent years 
have they been known to science. 
They are keen of vision and, unlike most 
animals, depend upon eyesight for warning of 
danger; but despite this, it is no easy task to 
approach one of these alert, far-sighted animals 
on an open mountainside. To those physically 
equipped for it, hunting mountain sheep is the 
grandest sport the hunter can find, and Alaska 
is one of the best fields for it in the world. 
Wild goats are very plentiful in the North 
and can be found in nearly every mountainous 
section of the territory, although their prin¬ 
cipal range is in the coast slopes of the main- 
PREPARING A CARIBOU ROAST FOR 
THANKSGIVING DINNER. 
land mountains, from Portland Canal north to 
the western spurs of the Chugach Mountains. 
It lives almost entirely at high altitudes, 
frequenting steep cliffs, rock-walled canons and 
mountain peaks of even more forbidding nature 
than those traversed by mountain sheep. To 
approach a wild goat successfully is more of a 
feat of mountaineering than crafty hunting. To 
get above a white goat in most cases is to get 
up among the angels. Besides the difficulty of 
getting a shot at them, many obstacles are en¬ 
countered in packing them down the mountain. 
Deer are also found in Alaska to some ex¬ 
tent, especially in the forest of Southeastern, 
Southern and Central Alaska. The little 
Sitkan deer, once so plentiful on the mainland 
and islands of Southeastern Alaska, were 
slaughtered by the thousands in past years, but 
now bid fair to hold their own under existing 
game laws. 
Big timber wolves are occasionally found 
in the timbered regions of this country and 
gray wolves are to be seen along the outskirts 
of the Caribou lands. Foxes thrive in every 
portion of the North, and include the wdiite 
Arctic, the red and the silver-gray species. 
Of the smaller game found in Alaska is the 
rabbit, more correctly speaking, the northern 
hare, which changes its color to white in winter. 
These hares are abundant in some seasons and 
almost unknown at others, dying off at times 
by the thousands as though stricken by a 
plague. At such time they will be found every¬ 
where lying dead in the trails or floating down 
the streams. 
Among the game birds are a great variety 
of ducks, including mallards, pintails, gadwalls, 
widgeons, blue-bills, green- and blue-winged 
teal, butterballs, long tails, canvasbacks, harle¬ 
quins, shelldrakes, and, in fact, nearly all va¬ 
rieties except the eastern wood duck. 
The North is the breeding ground for 
geese, ducks, swans, cranes, plovers, snipe and 
other kinds of waterfowl and shore birds. 
Most of the migratory game birds go north in 
May and start in August. The main or greater 
spring migration lasts only a short time, but 
the fall migration lasts from a month to six 
weeks. 
There is a great variety of Arctic waterfowl 
that are never seen south of the Alaska Penin¬ 
sula and the Aleutian Islands. These include 
the eider duck and the emperor goose. The 
hunting for waterfowl is best in Southeastern 
and Southern Alaska rather than in the in¬ 
terior or northern portion, where they remain 
only during the breeding season. 
While there are no quail in Alaska, the 
family is well represented by the beautiful 
ptarmigan, two varieties of which are abundant, 
the rock ptarmigan, of the mountain tops, and 
the willow ptarmigan, of the lowlands. The 
mountain bird is the smaller of the two, and is 
erroneously called mountain quail, while the 
sourdough name of “tomicans” is applied in¬ 
discriminately to both. These birds have a 
brown plumage in the summer, almost the 
exact color of the tundra moss. In the winter 
they change to a pure white color. Shooting 
the birds is very similar to hunting prairie 
chickens. 
Grouse are found in the wooded regions of 
Alaska, most commonly in the interior. In the 
North these birds are given a name well known 
to all hunters, of “fool hen.” Killing them is 
often not difficult, as flocks of the birds will 
roost in trees, where half of their number may 
be shot before the rest flutter a wing. They 
grow to a size of an ordinary domestic chicken. 
Aside from offering a great field for the 
nimrod, Alaska is a paradise for the angler. 
The fishing season is open all the year round, 
and there are few places where the disciple of 
Izaak Walton may not enjoy good sport. In 
all the lakes and rivers there are fish that will 
take bait or fly. Most of the streams in the 
interior fairly teem with gamy grayling, which 
weigh about a pound and a half and can be 
caught with a fly or other bait. 
Five kinds of trout are found in Alaska, 
consisting of the rainbow, Dolly Varden, lake, 
cut-throat and steelhead. The steelhead usually 
called salmon trout are the most numerous, fol¬ 
lowing the salmon up stream to their spawn- 
