ion as being shot on
Kadiak island by a Mr. J.C. Tolman. These were the only authentic
records I could find of bears of this species which had fallen to the
rifle of an amateur sportsman.

After spending two months in southern Alaska, I determined to visit the
Kadiak Islands in pursuit of this bear. I reached my destination the
latter part of June, and three days later had started on my shooting
expedition with native hunters. Unfortunately I had come too late in the
season. The grass had shot up until it was shoulder high, making it most
difficult to see at any distance the game I was after.

The result of this, my first hunt, was that I actually saw but three
bear, and got but one shot, which, I am ashamed to record, was a miss.
Tracks there were in plenty along the salmon streams, and some of these
were so large I concluded that as a sporting trophy a good example of
the Kadiak bear should equal, if not surpass, in value any other kind of
big game to be found on the North American continent. This opinion
received confirmation later when I saw the size of the skins brought in
by the natives to the two trading companies.

* * * * *

As I sailed away from Kadiak that fall morning I determined that my hunt
was not really over, but only interrupted by the long northern winter,
and that the next spring would find me once more in pursuit of this
great bear.

It was not only with the hope of shooting a Kadiak bear that I decided
to make this second expedition, but I had become greatly interested in
the big brute, and although no naturalist myself, it was now to be my
aim to bring back to the scientists at Washington as much definite
material about him as possible. Therefore the objects of my second trip
were:

Firstly, to obtain a specimen of bear from the Island of Kadiak;
secondly, to obtain specimens of the bears found on the Alaska
Peninsula; and, lastly, to obtain, if possible, a specimen of bear from
one of the other islands of the Kadiak group. With such material I
hoped that it could at least be decided definitely if all the bears of
the Kadiak Islands are of one species; if all the bears on the Alaska
Peninsula are of one species; and also if the Kadiak bear is found on
the mainland, for there are unquestionably many points of similarity
between the bears of the Kadiak Islands and those of the Alaska
Peninsula. It was also my plan, if I was successful in all these
objects, to s