The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-05-31
GREAT SPORT IN ALASKA.
WONDERFUL BIG FAME SHOOTING
IN 1HE NORTBERN 1ERRT7oRY

HAonNht v Nne way OF Herds OF ManSs
sad Drovss orPoiarB ears-Grisz,ss M.
rs ~esrs-Csri and Deer In Myr,.ds
POMONA. Cal, May 23.-James T.. Fisher. ex.
President OF the Southern California Sports.
mems Association and q former member of "A.
sembly In California, returned to his home in
Orange county the other day after A tour OF
four months in Alaska. He was one of the
thousands Of men who have gone TO Alaska in
the last year from the Pacific Coast States 70
seek riches In the newly found gold fields of the
Territory. Mr.. Fisher Is also one of the hun
1reds of men who are now retarn,no ais.
sppoipted from Alaska after having searcbed
long And vigorously for lodges OF gold bearing
rock along the Yukon River and that region.
So Tar as my journey In search Of gold
min"e in Alaska 10 concerned,r said he In Los
angeles yesterday. " mot with failure, but in
all my years as q hunter and fisherman I have
never had such success as last February, March,
and q part of April in Alaska. Two hunted for
months at n time all over the Rocky Mountains
south OF Montana, and I've put in over twenty
years OF fun with rifes and shotguns and FISH
ing rods among the Sierras all the way from
British Columbia to the Mexican boundary line,
and l tell you with all inpressiveness I have
never seen such wonderful shooting among big
game as q party OF q half-dozen Of us have had
MP there. There's ono thing about this tremen-
dous rush to the Yukon gold fields this season,
the men who go there provided with hunting
equipment and have any skill at all In shooting
and fishing, will not only not starve, as some
gold seekers In nearly all gold mining rushcs
and excitements have done, but will have album
dant opportunity to feast daily on as fne game
as ever was served by the best chef in the world.
II met hundreds of men In the mining fields
in Alaska who have lived in the cafons and
mountains Of the Western States and Territories
for twenty and thirty years, and therefore know
a thing or two about what game is, and nine out
OF ten OF them said that Alaska is to-day far
and away the most royal hunting region under
the Stars and Stripes, II not in the whole West
ern continent. Just think OF seeing seventy
great fat moose stalking along within grushot
in one day. and of shooting two grizzly bears In
one morning, besides catching from eighty TO
100 speckled trout in q day. and bringing
into camp from fifteen to twenty deer in
a week. 1t makes your eyes water and
your heart beat to hear me tell it
don't wonder. No such shooting anywhere in
the world since the muse Of history began busi-
ness. I sometimes believe. Goodness, how I
wish I were rich. SC as to take q little party of
my sportsman friends up there for a summer
season. l should not give a continental for all
the gold mines in the universe and the immense
wealth there is in them IL l could only have q
few months in Alaska every year along with
my dogs. guns, and a few congenial friends.
The true hunter In Alaska has his greatest
sport with the moose and caribou. These
beasts are of the same species as in Maine and
Canada, but have q follower fur, and do not
seem to be so pugnacious and feet Of foot. In
other respects the species are Identical. Al I
was coming away from the Yukon region the
annual migration Of the moose had just begun
to SGT in from the south along the coast. where
the warm current in the ocean from the south
makes the climate quite agreeable in winter, up
IN tho hfph In MIA hafvaap tina Tanana and fhn
Yukon rivers.
The animals find good grazing in the latter
Is a movement Of literally tens OF thousands OF
moose to aud from the high grazing fields. /
days l was in the country, and my comrades
saw as many more. II we had waited two weeks
10oSss u The %i Indians naVt so isen me ssy .hss they inop's had
sometimes seen such vast herds of moose trudg4
grstions that they kedi like the side OF a great
yellow hill moving along. shot seven moose
for two weeks. / might have got. enough meat
to furnish nis a regiment j, OF VI, men; but ~ would ND
eeinrycSu ms st There i are several p thouaa md
miners mine s, in camp q, along ,hs,s m the yukon nxepv River Ave rho rho
"Ilearned that the principal food of the In
s ana that IN w she ssva Il @ siSss Sa pr easiSS for v sIayfns
the beasts when they come down sleek and fat
try turn out for a grand hunt of q fortnight; and
the saEaws and children make 1t their businesH
Hudson Bay Company q nephew. By The way;
told me that last fall the supply of yenisen
at that station was over 10000 pounds. He
such a good thing as venison, and never molested
the moose until the next fall. for meanwhile
why the herds OF moose have rY halned so great
through all these years. During the next Ave
some seventy-hve miles from Fort Yukon and
200 miles from the mouth of tho Porcupine
a RiSf Il is Il lik Is q l .hai e RsrS fs% n , she tSSu :ssss;
OF men who have gone gold crazy In Alaska
could DO induced to quit a mining claim Ter &c,
through dense chaparral.
Then there are the bears of Alaska! There
are the polars and n breed of grizzlies known as
the Mt. ST. Elias bears. 1t takes money for an
American there to hunt polar bears, for one has
and sailors must be hired. but there's nothing
In the whole range of wild. sport that any
either grizzlies or polar bears in Alaska. People
who think polar. bears are becoming extinct
aSout St. Matthews Island last March. and
lar bears. Some of them. were the most
enormous specimens OF the bear tribe We ever
through our field glasses. but we shot and got
four in. ting @ourse OF IA week. 81. Matthews
mainland. and on this and Halls, Island the big
white fellows make their winter home. No one
sold them to Uncle Sam, The indians say
that there are sometimes 1000 polar
bears on st. Matthews Island in the winter.
and that there must be altogether in that re-
Fion every winter at least 5000 or 5000 polar
S Sssr rs;liab isH Indfap s" on s the %sin %%Sh A aHs ward
said that the number was not exaggernted; Last
Ua1,ys, About sSr , boo R RIns a SsAf {st T Sest kiii fS. S KIN. the
sell In San Francisco for $50 each, and to the
Alaska Indians there is nothing 50 deliciog, as
fat and smelling strong of fsn.
"ln May and June, when the Ice breaks up in
tho Behrin0 Sea, the great bears start for their
summer homes In tho Arctic Sea. They are
powerful swimmers, and sailors there told US
they have been known to swim, over 100 miles
in the course OF two or three days. 60 as TO find
q new resting place on an Ice foe. One day wa
watched from our steam craft several bears
that We saw swimming at the rate OF five miles
an hour for six or seven hours. The beasts
were about ten miles away from MS, and we saw
them through our spyglasses. We should have
gone after them, but we had no means of getting
the carcasses out OF the water and on board
after we had killed them.