Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-25
Uncle Sam Plans Protection of Big Came of Alaska


With the exception of the polar bear
they are the biggest bears known. The
largest of all are found on Kodiak Is
land, in the Alaska peninsula, and
about Yakutat. not far from Cordova
l have seen skins of these bears which
We're more than ten feet in length and
six feet in width. with fur upon them
three inches thick. | priced one in
store at Juneau and it was sos. Here
at Nome all furs are cheap. l have
bought skins of two baby grizzlies for
$40 each, and have sent them home by
parcel post. They weighed just under
twenty pounds. and it costs me $40
to have them landed in Washington.
Polar bear skins of enormous size are
sold here for $50 and $40. only a frac-
ton of the price they would bring in
the states.
AS to the common black bear, there
are so many of them about the mining
camps that they often break into the
cabins when the owners are away The
cubs are frequently caught and tanned
Every camp and village along the Yu-
kon has one or more which Will eat out
of your hand, and go through tricks
upon order. Such animals are usually
kept chained to post, and not infre
auently their home is a barrel or
hogshead nearby.
The polar bears of Alaska are found
here in Boring sea and along the Arctic
ocean. The hunter who wishes to kill
such game should come to Nome in the
spring and travel over the icefields
northward into the Arctic. The bears
move north and south with the ice
drift They go as far south as the Seal
Islands. and have been found as far
north as latitude 10. Their food is
chiefly seals and fish. The great bears
where the seals come up to breathe,
and grab them when their noses show
on the surface.
The animals are perfectly at home in
the water. and they have been seen
swimming in the Arctic sixty miles
from land ice. / am told by the
hunters that they usually run on the
approach of a man. but that they will
attack one when they are hungry.
There is story told here about an Es-
kimo at Point Barrow who got in the
track of a bear which was running
from a hunting party. The Eskimo,
who was shooting ducks. sent charge
of shot into the bear. The bear turned
back and knocked the Eskimo down
with one of his paws. He then bit off
the top of the mans head and resumed
his flight.
There is only one animal in this re-
gion that can successfully fight the
polar bear This is the full grown wal
rus. The bears will attack the baby
walruS. but they are afraid of the long,
sharp, ivory tusks of the grown-ups.
full grown Walrus has been seen on
the body of dead whale, keeping
away polar bear that was hungrily
swimming around it.
There is no closed season on walrus,
although the animals should be pro-
tected. They formerly came down to
the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska
peninsula, but the rookeries there have
hap
fined to the Arctic ocean and Boring
sea. They are greatly desired by the
Eskimos who use the walrus hides for
covering their large boats. pairing the
skin down for the purpose. They also
eat the meat and sell the ivory tusks,
sometimes getting 81 a pound. They
use the blubber for heating and light
ing their igloos.
The Alaska walrus are enormous The
average one is as big as an OK, and it
often weighs more than a ton. A wal
rus was recently killed by some whal-
ers near Point Barrow whose head
weighed eighty pounds. and whose skin,
including the hippers, 500 pounds That
animal had a girth of fourteen feet,
and its weight was over 1000 pounds.
The skin was from one-half an inch to
three inches in thickness. and the blub-
Der weighed 500 pounds. The tusks of
the walrus are a beautiful ivory. They
extend directly downward from the
upper jaw, and are sometimes almost
two feet in length.
Among striking features of the game
of this part Of the world is the pro-
vision that nature has made for their
protection. Some of the birds and
animals change their color in winter,
so that they cannot be seen against the
white snow. The ptarmigan, for in
stance, which is one of the finest
grouse of Alaska. has a summer plumage
of notified brown. while it's winter coat
is snow white. The same is true of the
rabbits. They are gray in the summer
and change to a snow white in the winter.
The rabbits here are twice as large as
those of our eastern states, although not
so large as the arctic hare of the far
north. They are sometimes called snow
shoe rabbits. because their feet take the
place of snowshoes. They are large and
soft. enabling the rabbits to go over the
snow without sinking in.
Rabbits are SO numerous that they form
the food of many wild animals. They are
eaten by wolves. dogs and bears, and even
by the mink and the lynx,
FRANK G. CARPENTER.