Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-07-16
It May be Found Along the Shores
 of Alaska
It Is Region That Actually Teens with Bird Life - Streams Filled with Gamy TrOut-An old Hunters Live
 1y Experience.

eral public as the home and dwelling
 place of the fur seal and place where
 tourists go during the brief summer to
 see some of the grandest scenery on this
 continent, says the San Francisco
 Chronicle. To speak of Alaska is to
 suggest to the mind a picture of vast
 glaciers. rugged, snow-capped noun
 tains and impenetrable forests-a land
 of desolation and silence.
 How different from this mental pie
 ture is the reality can only be under
 stood after a.trip taken to this land of
 queer contrasts which will not only
 cover the ground usually traversed by
 tourists but extend westward along the
 beautiful Aleutian archipelago, the
 numerous islands in Behring sea and
 the ice-girdled shores of the Arctic ocean. During six months of the year all this region actually teens with life. There is not an island or rocky ledge in
 Behring sea which will not hold the Ob- servers attention for hours if he be a lover of nature, with the myriads of
 birds which find in the crcvices of the cliffs just the place to rear their young.
 At St. George island. one of the Pri-
 byiov group, there is one particular place that never loses its fascination for the student of bird life. The northwest end of the island shows perpendicular mural cliff nearly one thousand feet high, facing the sea. It is shattered and broken into millions of shelf-lil1c projections, buttress $ and pinnacles
 by the action of frost, and during the height of the breeding season every lit tie crevice seems to contain a bird. There are murres and gulls. kittywal1es, shags, puffins and all the known mem- bers of the sea-bird families, screaming and chattering as if their very lives de pended upon making a noise.
 But if the sight of so many birds par italy concealed by the rocks is inspir- ing, the exhibition of life and energy is Overpowering when, as something hap pens, they are disturbed. Then from the face of this great cliff. thousand feet high and over mile long. a cata- ract of whirring, screaming, shrieking birds pours down and toward the sea. filling the air with an indescribable. deafening roar, and then, rising again, they form long lines or flight. which seem like parti-colored ribbons girdling the island.
 Leaving the Pribylov group and steering to the northwest some two hundred miles, the next land to be seen is St. Matthews island. Here, too, birds abound, and as the island is unin- habited by man, the birds are free from disturbance except from the natural enemy. the fox, and an occasional polar bear. Around the edges of the salt marshes found on the eastern end of St. Matthews cider ducks are found in great numbers The birds are but indifferent flyers, and it is one of the amusing experiences of the Arctic vOy- ager to see the awkward efforts of the clumsy bird to get out of the way of an approaching steamer. They find it extremely difficult to rise from the water. especially if t4crc be no wind, and an approaching vessel causes them to flap noisily along the surface for distance, and then. as if animated by a single purpose. hundreds of them will dive, only to reappear q few moments later and struggle off again.
 The lover of field sports would find a gunner's paradise along the shores of the Arctic ocean in the summer season. snipe and ducks are so plentiful that one tires of shooting them. So far as known the canvaSbaclI duck. so much prized by gOurmands, is not found north of the Arctic circle: but the de Gcious little green and blue-winged teal and tOothsome mallard are found everywhere along the coast and on the banks of the streams.
 During the last of May, when the late Arctic spring first shows signs of open ing, the natives begin to look anXiously sOuthward for the coming of the em- peror goose. This bird forms one of the principal articles of food supply to the natives and during the molting season the slaughter of the birds is enormous. Long nets are set across the marshes and the water fowl are driven into them by the natives. Thousands of young birds are killed in these drives by the wasteful savages, who excuse them selves by saying that they will thus pA pACNOh1 UiCAA OOiuS III 'hS way lliC uCAI drive.
 One of the handsomest small birds found in Alaska. and one affording the best sport for shooting, is the red phala- rope. It is abundant along the coast and on all the islands of Behring sea. arriving about June l, and is com.non until October 20. The flight of the phalarope is very cratic, and the gum ner fond of wing shooting has in this bird an excellent chance to test his skill.
 Should the sportsman grow weary of over the half-fioOded flats and