Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV HUNTING GROUNDS Game and fur bearing animals and birds of Alaska -- Mosquitoes make life a burden to the sportsman during certain seasons -- Habits of the moose, caribou, mountain sheep and goat and various species of bear -- Where to go and what to take -- Notes on Game Laws -- Where guides are needed -- Birds and animals indigenous to the territory. FROM the tiny mosquito to the stately moose and the ferocious Kadiak bear, Alaska is populous with game of many different kinds and descriptions. The word "game" is not applied to the mosquito in the sense that these insects are good to eat -- although often enough they manage to mix themselves in with the cuisine of the woodsman -- but in the sense that they are imbued with the pugnacity and pertinacity of a bulldog. In addition they are endowed with a nasal, buzzing voice that is more irritating and nerve-racking than the cry of the lone timber wolf, and a "bill" that some miners declare has greater boring force than a diamond drill. A prospector in British Columbia once told the writer that, on the Liard River, he spread a paper in the bottom of his tent and swung his hunting knife through the air. This more or less veracious chronicler declared that he killed seventeen mosquitoes at the first pass. He averred also that the atmosphere in that locality was so full of mosquitoes that the only way for them to increase their numbers was to reduce their size. The mosquitoes come with the first warm nights of summer, and live through the season till the first frost. After that peace reigns -- or rather peace would reign if it were not for the gnats, which, although not so pugnacious as the mosquitoes, are quite as industrious and can be depended upon to make the life t>f the...