The daily progressive-miner., 1918-03-25
ably together.

protected by law 1t has increased so fast in certain sections, one of which in the region about Kodiak. that neith- Ter man nor beast is safe from his at. tacks. Nor can hc be fenced out. On the Frye ranch. now abandoned, To- cated but few miles from the Kalsine Bay ranch, the bear has demolished the fences in many places, and SO he [has the fences on the experimental station. If the law gives no relief 1t will be necessary to employ armed guards to protect both cattle and sheep while at pasture. They can be safe only while locked up in strong build ings. The practical destruction of the livestock industry would appear to be a high price to pay for the pleas |ure that may be enjoyed by a few sportsmen from the states who make occasional visits to Alaska in search of trophies.
 '.It is certain that livestock breed ing will be impossible on Kodiak and Afognak Islands if the bear is allowed to hold unrestricted sway"
 Kodiak and adjoining islands are
 not the only fields of attractive az
 ricultural land in Alaska rendered un- Iinhabitable and uesless by the conser- vation of the bear. The country on
 both sides of Kachemak Bay and at
 the head of Cook Inlet hold out many inducements to the stock raiser were it not for the solictude bestowed upon
 the brown bear by our Government. The bear, whether black or brown, is not only an enemy of the livestock
 industry, but of the fishing. He is
 himself fisherman of the highest
 skill.-and, like our city sports, kills
 for pleasure. During the season when
 the salmon are going up the stream to
 spawn, the bear amuses himself by throwing the live salmon out of the water. He is a gourmand and gorges
 himself, but is SO fastidious that he
 will eat only the cheek of the fish. It is generally considered that bear will eat one-third of it's own weight in fish each day. When it is remem bered that a brown bear not unusually weighs as much as three-fourths of ton, it will be realized that a good many salmon cheeks are required to satisfy his wants. Yet, if you examine the salmon thrown out by the bear you will find large percentage which show no marks of violence except scratches of the bears claws on the
 back or side, proving that these have been thrown out for pure sport. When it now is remembered that these sal mon are in the stream to spawn and that the destruction of one represents the destruction of thousands of em- bryo salmon, it will be realized that the bear is fish destroyer of no in- significant proportions.
 The people of Alaska have for years consistently begged Congress to relieve them from these pests of the agricul- tural and fishing industry, but they have failed utterly to make any i'm pression upon the authorities in posit ion to grant relief.
 Nor are the bureaus to blame for this policy of destruction so tenacious ly adhered to. Proof of the truth of the assertions above made has been in part furnished by the bureau of fisheries. In 1914 Dr. E. Lester Jones the then Deputy Commissioner of this bureau. made a cursory investigation of some of these observations in part as follows:
 At Union Bay. Cleveland Peninsula spent over a day in and around the region of Black Bear Creek. I walked the middle of the stream, also exam ming both banks, for as much as three miles. found the greater part of the shore, sometimes from 100 to 15O feet back from the stream trodden like a pasture. Over all this area frequent ed by bear during, the salmon runs, I saw hundreds upon hundreds of hump backs, silvers and chums that had been thrown out of the water by these an imals In the majority of cases the fish were not mutilated, only bruised by the mark of the bears paw on their backs, showing their characteristic way of tossing the fish out of the water The bear is very fastidious and prefers the cheek of the salmon to any other part, The stench along this stream was most unpleasant, and besides the fish in varying stages of decomposit- ion there were many bones that gave indication of the large number of sal mon destroyed every year by the bear.
 "The foregoing examples of Union Bay and Prince of Wales Island are merely typical of many other places where black bears are very plentiful and the destruction of salmon is cor respondingly heavy. On Admiralty and Baranof Islands, where the brown and grizzly bears are more common, these conditions are just as bad as on other streams in Southeastern Al aska."
 :, It would seem opportune at this ! time when intensive cultivation is called for to again endeavor fO dis i;