Show game roams alaskan wilds giant moose huge brown bears and white mountain sheep abound V ashington most american sports men know that alaska has a vast wilderness area an fn which exist great numbers of some of the most esque and interesting game animals of this continent says dr E W elson in a recent bulletin of the american game protective association the most notable of these are the giant moose the greatest living re presena alve of the deer tribe in the world the huge brown bears of bodlak island and the alaska peninsula the greatest of living carnivores carn ivores are alie survivors of a line of huge bears which once inhabited western amer lea skulls from fhe asphalt deposits of bouthern hou thern california show that even the gigantic bear was far ex celled in size by the bears of that re glon in the long ago says doctor eselson 9 the white mountain sheep of alas kas mountain ranges are among the most beautiful of their kind their nearest relatives are mountain sheep found throughout and eastern siberia several races of caribou also inhabit alaska former ly chev existed in vast herds over muck of the territory but they have been exterminated in deome areas and greatly reduced in numbers of others although large herds still occupy the region and the couric of the upper lukon river meat value of game in addition to its large game alaska ts the breeding place every spring of vast numbers of migratory wild fowl which come to the states to spend the fall and TV inter its game re the territory also has rich resources in land fur bearing animals the gloss income from which amounts to about 2 a year alie gross value of alie game taken each year in by the native and white probably lias a meat value close ly approximating for a long time after purchase of alaska froan russia no effort was made to safeguard its wild ute re writes doctor in 1902 however the first general game law applying to the territory was passed by congress As a result after my v isalt to alie territory in 1920 to es alie reindeer experimental work of alie biological survey I 1 undertook the preparation of a new alaskan game and fur law tills bill was sponsored by alanskas delegate dan sutherland enacted and signed by the president in 1923 alakl a contains a vast area of wild country which will remain a nebs far into the distant future and among alie anin resources of lucli areas will continue to be the game and fur bearers which they support one gratifying development under the new act has been to operatic e ar range menta with the game authorities of british columbia and yukon herrl tory providing for the same seasons especially on fur bearers on both sides of the boundary in addition joint patrols of the boundary have already been instituted with gratifying effect in putting out of business some law violators who have been located alon the line in order that their alons might be concealed bv moving back and ferth over the boundary so far as can be judged in the time since the new law became effective its reception by the people of the territory and its operations have been very promising for its effective influence in the conservation of alas kas wild life caribou and bears threatened the biological survey has turned over to the commission a sea gome patrol boat alie sea otter 47 feet lu patrol lne tae coasts of the mainland and islands of southeastern alaska vi aln its territory theae coast lines aggregate a total of about miles plans are being drawn for a power cruiser ga feet in length to be equipped with a full dasel en alne for use in patrolling the islands of the coast of alaska from cook inlet to the westward the alas ka peninsula and alie aleutian islands this great area has hitherto been without any game or fur law enforce jaent fhe caribou on the alaska sula have been reduced to a point that seriously endangers their existence and the persistent hunting of brown bears on the peninsula has alao greatly reduced the numbers of interest ing animals in parts of that area in rolda hive also been made on the brown bears and caribou on laland the easternmost of the aleu alon islands reservation in ganv areas abe winter poisoning of fur bearers has also been a common alce alth disastrous consequences to the fur supply one of the most gratifying results from alie administration of the new law has been the willingness of alie courts to punish offenders by the confiscation of guns and the am position of substantial fines and in flagrant cases of jail sentences one of the useful restrictions in the new law Is that forbidding the possession at firearms by aliens without a special permit many offenders against the game and fur laws in the past in alaska have been among this class of and the rapid confiscation of their guns which Is now taking place will unquestionably be most beneficial to the wild life the ahsha legislature at its spring session of 1925 appropriated to be used by the game corn mission in re stocking with game and fur bearers areas suitable for species not already there or which have be come extinct deer have already been introduced on kodak island and snow shoe rabbits from washington haqq been placed on islands in southeastern alaska further distribution of deer will be made possibly the elk will be tried in certain localities mountain goats have been placed on at least one and beahr musk rat mink and marten wah be intro deuced on islands where they 40 not occur the areas involved ore so greit lu the aggregate that these stocking experiments carry the possibility of a very material increase in the game and fur output of the territory deer saved from starvation during the earby winter of 1925 doc tor kelson relates an extraordinary heavy snowfall forced deer to aba bea clies where they were trying to subsist on kelp exposit by low tide and were starving A fund of 2000 was raised and sent to alx warden lu cl hay was purchased and arrangements made through th patrol boat of the biological survey and through the co operation alt the forest service and alie bureau of cries and the people of south bastein alaska to distribute it and to cut down spruce trees on a conald erable scale so that the deer could feed on ther foliage A number ol 01 contributions of mono and lioy also made by the people of the region and the combined of the efforts was to save a very large number of deer from starvation iha biological survey in the spring of 1021 1 organized a operative cooperative co elpe with W brandt of cleveland and II 11 U conover of the I 1 beld museum of chicago to study the breeding of wild fowl in the giedt marsh country south of the delta ot the yukon A part of the work was the binding of a considerable number of birds including about gecse forty of these bands from geese killed during their southward flight the following autumn were returned to washington the first of these geese was tal en on the alaskan peninsula the next on queen char lotte islands and ot heis down the coast of washington oregon and in california |