Vol. LXXXVIII 
FEBRUARY, 1918 
No. 2 
IN CASSIAR, THE NEW GAME COUNTRY 
THE CELEBRATED GAME FIELDS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ABOUND IN MOOSE, CARIBOU, 
MOUNTAIN GOATS AND SHEEP—PRIZED TROPHIES FOR THE HUNTER OF BIG GAME 
ELEGRAPH CREEK 
is ten days of contin- 
ous travel from the 
eastern cities of the 
United States, is 
about forty-five hun¬ 
dred miles from New 
York, and is the only 
point for the outfit¬ 
ting of hunters for 
the celebrated game 
fields of Cassiar, Brit¬ 
ish Columbia,. The 
Cassiar game fields were hunted and 
explored by Captain Clive Phillips- 
Wolley and Warburton Pike prior 
to 1895 and in 1895-6 Andrew J. 
Stone (from whom the Stone sheep 
are named) hunted in Cassiar. But 
it was not until 1903 that Cassiar 
began to be regularly visited by big 
game hunters. Since that time 223 
hunters have outfitted from Tele¬ 
graph Creek. Of this number 17 
came from Canada, 59 from Europe 
and 147 from the United States. 
Since 1913, on account of the Euro¬ 
pean war, there have been no hunt¬ 
ers in Cassiar from Europe and but 
one Canadian sportsman. 
From Seattle, Vancouver or Prince 
Rupert the journey to Telegraph 
Creek is by ship through the inside 
passage to Wrangell, Alaska, and by 
gasoline boat from Wrangell up the 
Stikine River to Telegraph Creek. 
The hunter should leave his trunk 
and his city clothes in the hotel at 
Wrangell, pack his outfit in a duffle 
bag and don his hunting clothes. 
August twenty-first, which is the lat¬ 
est date the hunter should arrange 
to leave Wrangell, I arrived there in 
company with my brother Arthur 
and James Blair. We had sent otfr 
baggage forward a day in advance 
of leaving home, to guard against 
the possibility of delay on that score, 
and it was ready for us. It is most an¬ 
noying to wait several precious days at a 
small settlement for delayed baggage. 
By HENRY BANNON 
Wrangell and the Stikine River 
W RANGELL is a most interesting lit¬ 
tle village. Its chief industries are 
the salmon canneries and a saw¬ 
mill at which lumber for airplane parts is 
cut. Of greatest interest are the relics of 
the past, such as the totem poles, and the 
historical memories of Russian occupation. 
With the editor of the Wrangell newspa¬ 
per, I took a stroll through the village and 
found him an excellent companion. He 
told me that totem poles were simply bar¬ 
baric forms of heraldry, but when I asked 
one of our Indian guides why the Indian 
set up totem poles his answer was, “Just 
for a sort of brand.” Not a bad definition 
of heraldry in spite of its simplicity. 
An Episcopal clergyman maintains a 
booth for the benefit of his church at 
Wrangell and has on sale pictures and 
pamphlets of interest to the traveler. He 
has been there many years and is doing a 
good work for the cause of humanity. 
Telegraph Creek is about one hundred 
and sixty miles northeastwardly from 
Wrangell. As the boat only makes weekly 
trips the hunter should have his outfitter 
wire him the departure dates from Wran¬ 
gell or he may be compelled to lay 
over there. The accommodations on 
the boat are about what one gets in 
camp. It takes two full days to 
make the trip up the stream if one 
has good luck and, as this is a very 
dangerous river to navigate, the boat 
lays up at night as a precaution. 
But there is no monotony of the 
journey. The Stikine is very swift 
and turbulent. There are many 
rocks and snags in the channel and 
bars projecting from the shore that 
call for most careful vigilance upon 
the part of the captain and the pilot. 
Upon our return the pilot missed 
the channel and ran the boat upon a 
bar so we were stranded there for sev¬ 
eral hours and until the tide floated 
us. The stream is of a limestone 
gray color, caused in part by the 
milky glacial tributaries that feed it, 
but mainly by the cutting of the 
banks by the current thereby pre¬ 
cipitating glacial soil into the stream. 
On either side are high mountains, 
almost perpendicular, with innumer¬ 
able water falls pouring over their 
iron gray sides above timber line, 
and furrowing their green sides be¬ 
low timber line. The many glaciers 
along the way are sublime in their 
grandeur, and every hunter who has 
made, and those who may make, the 
trip to Cassiar should read John 
Muir’s wonderful book, “Travels in Alas¬ 
ka,” descriptive of this region, its glaciers 
and interesting geological formations. 
The narrow Stikine River is swift and dangerous 
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