February, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
77 
ary. At Wrangell it is also necessary to 
secure documents from the United States 
Customs office. Our outfitter arranged all 
these details for us. That our trophies 
were properly cared for is shown by the 
letter of our taxidermist who writes: “We 
have examined every specimen carefully 
and find all in good condition.” 
Big Game Records of Cassiar 
HE sportsman hunts for recreation 
and the love of the chase, not for 
record heads. Yet he should know 
the records for the territory in which he 
hunts. The value of the trophy is not de¬ 
termined by its size alone, as the largest 
trophy may be inferior in everything ex¬ 
cept size. The record sheep head for Cas¬ 
siar in 1917 is not a handsome one because 
one horn is much shorter than the other. 
Again, the size of trophies varies in locali¬ 
ties. A good moose head in Wyoming 
would be a poor one in Cassiar and those 
of Kenai surpass Cassiar. 
The Government Agent at Telegraph 
Creek keeps a record of the largest tro¬ 
phies brought in annually by each hunter 
and the list following gives the largest 
measured since 1895: 
Caribou — Spread 50^, length 61^, 
points 24. Caribou—Spread 55, length 
54 l A, points 20. Sheep—Spread 30, length 
44 l A, base 13^. Sheep—Spread 33%, 
length 43^, base 14545. Moose—Spread 
63H, palms 40x13, points 32. Goat— 
Length ii>g, base 6. 
A goat having horns 12 inches in length 
and a spread of 12 inches was killed by a 
hunter in Cassiar but not officially re¬ 
corded by the Government Agent. 
To the Hunting Grounds 
T HERE are several different grounds 
in the vicinity of Telegraph Creek. 
The Shesley hunt is a trip of seven¬ 
ty-five miles to Shesley for sheep and 
grizzly and then on to Heart Mountain for 
moose and Level Mountain for caribou. 
On the Klappan hunt the outfit will go 
fifty to eighty miles for sheep and one 
hundred and twenty-five to one hundred 
and seventy-five miles for caribou and 
moose. The Dease Lake hunt is excellent 
for caribou but not good for sheep. It is 
a trip of over one hundred miles. To the 
Iskut summit is sixty or seventy miles and 
a good place for sheep and grizzly. The 
Burnham Circle makes a good hunt but it 
is a hard one. The hunter travels seventy 
miles to Klappan Crossing, crosses the 
Stikine, goes up the McBride River and 
returns by Dease Lake, a trip of about 
three hundred miles. We took the Nahlin 
hunt, which is about one hundred and 
thirty-five miles north of Telegraph Creek 
for sheep and is usually extended to Fox 
Mountain and Level Mountain for moose, 
and caribou, but as we secured ours in 
other territory it was not necessary to go 
there. It takes seven days of steady travel 
to reach the Nahlin hunting grounds. 
The various outfits from Telegraph 
Creek are distributed in different directions 
and there can be no possible interference 
of one party with another. 
Atlin has been mentioned as a favorable 
place at which to outfit for a hunt in Cas¬ 
siar because the hunter outfitting there 
would avoid the uncomfortable, and some¬ 
times long and dangerous trip up the Sti¬ 
kine. But the only territories available 
to the hunter from Atlin are those of Nah¬ 
lin and Nakina and though there is ^a good 
road for about thirty-five miles south from 
Atlin towards Nahlin, nevertheless the 
hunter must use a pack train and the In¬ 
dian guides and travel over trails in order 
to reach the game fields. The trails be¬ 
yond the Atlin road are seldom used so 
are not maintained and are very difficult 
to travel. Telegraph Creek is the center 
at which nearly all the traffic for transpor¬ 
tation by pack train in Cassiar originates. 
These pack trains transport freight during 
the summer over several different trails 
but by autumn their work is done so the 
horses and packers are available to the 
hunters. Atlin is not a point at which any 
considerable traffic by pack transportation 
originates, so efficient pack outfits and 
guides cannot be secured there. Moreover, 
Telegraph Creek, as the map shows, is the 
hub of encircling game fields and Atlin is 
not. The certain way to have a successful 
hunt in Cassiar is to outfit at Telegraph 
Creek. The journey is too long and ex¬ 
pensive to justify experiments. 
A fifty day trip is the longest a hunter 
should take as it insures him getting out 
of the country before floating ice suspends 
navigation in the Stikine for power boats. 
If the trip is begun by the middle of 
August there is no need of being ice-bound. 
The trip to Wrangell in a small boat may 
be made after the ice begins to run but 
it costs about One Hundred and Fifty Dol¬ 
lars, and is attended with some risk. A 
trip by the gasoline boat never costs more 
than Twenty-five Dollars. 
(to be continued next month) 
