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Show Alaska's Bears. m To the bear hunters the wilds m Alaska offer a paradisethat camne found in no other country on the globe, as is attested by yearly shipments cf hides. Tho most chosen are those of the black bear, which roam the woods by hundreds, and prime skins bring from f 25 up to as high as $100 each in the market. During the excursion oeasou tourists from all parts of the globe make a thriving trade for Alaska merchants in the bear-skin line. There are five distinct species of the bear in Alaska, the black, brown orcinnamon and ucrosu, which inhabit all portioaa of Southern Alaska and upper portion of the Yukon County. Furthernorth, in the St. Elias Alps, is the home of a grizzly which in size, ferocity and color much resembles the grizzlies of the Sierra Nevadas, and still further north, along the lower reaches of the Yukon and tho ice fields of the Arctic Ocean, is tbe white polar bear. As brave and skillful in hunting bear as the Alaskan Indian is, he seldom hunts tho St. Elias grizzly, both because be-cause there is little profit iu the hides and the great size and ferocity of the beasts make hunting them a hazardous haz-ardous undertaking. Their mode of killing them is by shooting into them from a heavily charged smooth-bore musket a heavy slug of lead, copper or iron, then awaitingtheir charge, which never fails to follow the shot, with a long, heavy and strongly made spear, resting the butt of tho weapon on the ground and planting one foot firmly against it. Tho point of the spear rests at an angle to pierce the bear in the breast, and the bear's own weight, when it strikes the Bpear in its mad charge, is calculated to drive the weapon wea-pon through him or pierce him deep enough to cause death. As will be readily seen, if at this critical moment tho hunter's courage should fail him, or by aniiscalculation the spear failed to impale the charging beast, the hunter hun-ter would be knocked senseless and immediately im-mediately torn into shreds. This mode of bear hunting may have its advantages, advan-tages, but only the Alaskan Indian has the courage to try tho experiment' Juneau Letter to the Denver News. I |