r«E KUSKO TIMES
A. X. Grant, Publisher, Sole
Owner and Editor.
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Wednesday and Saturday
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TfeadiDg Notices, per line, per
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Ent|ered as second-class matter Febru
ary ], 1922, at the Post Office at
McGrath, Alaska, UDder the
Act of March 3, 1379.
McGRATH, ALASKA, OCT. 23, 1922j
,
Annual Report of the
Governor of Alaska
on Alaska Game Law
The annual report of Governor Scot
C. Bone ou the Alaska game law, for
192), copies of which have just been re
ceived, in part, is as follows:
Animal life still abounds in AlaskB.
ft is not being ruthlessly exterminated.
While some varieties of game appar
ently are showiug a marked decrease,
others seem to be steadily increasing,
if not multiplying rapidly. Continued
protection and conservation, with more
adequate means,of law-enforcement,'
are,of the utmost importance.
Whatever the provisions of the law,
literal enforcement is quite impossible. '
This fact becomes apparent when one
keeps in mind the colossal size of the
Territory, with a landed area embrac
ing some 600,000 square miles and a
coast line, including indentations, 30.r
900i miles in length. To patrol the
whole of such a domain, vast sections
of it uninhabited and inaccessible, is
beyond the possibility of human
achievement.
Eleven game wardens and a few Bio
logical Survey agents, however alert
and vigilant, obviously can not enforce
to the letter the existing game laws,
nor any revised law. With the force
quadrupled and an adequate fund pro
vided for its maintenance, complete su
pervision aod enforcement would still
continue to be most difficult. The open
ing up of the Territory through the
construction of the Government rail
.-oad from coast to interior aod the
building of roads and trails will ma
terially lessen the difficulties.
In the mountain, fastnesses and other
.’emote regions people are wisely al
lowed to kill game for human suste
nance, and no revision of the code
should affect this iphase of the situa
tion. But the abuse of this privilege
for. profit, whieh sometimes occurs,
should be sternly punished.
Statistics as to animal life in Alaska
are unreliable; at very best they are
approximate.
Whether the bear population, brown,
black, grizziv, and polar, is 10,000 or
PROFESSIONAL
Albrecht and Taylor
LAWYERS
Iditarod, Alaska
and at
705'L. C. Sasith Bldg., Seattle, Wash
Practice in all Courts.
30,000, nobody knows. The game war
den who hazards the opinion that there
are as many bears in the Territory as
there are human beings maybe right
or may be wrong. An enumeration of
bears is beyond attainment. Likewise
this is true of the caribou aod the
moose*. Figures presented as to animal
life, cave reindeer, are guesswork nec
essarily-. .
Broadly speaking, it is within reason
to say that the bears, all varieties, the
caribou, and the moose in Alaska,
whatever the number in the aggregate,
although diminished in certain sec
tions, have not as a whole decreased
largely in recent years. At auy rate,
this is the eonsensusof opinion of game
wardens, prospectors and outdooi men
generally.
Mountain sheep and mountain goats,
equally impossible of enumeration, ate
apparently also holding their own in
number. Deer are less plentiful.
Migratory cannery men are accused
of slaughtering deer prodigally and
carrying winter supplies of such meat
to the State". Whether a fact ct- not,
this charge is accepted. The lack of a
patrol service lends plausibility to it.
it is in keeping witn- the easy traffic ih
liquor through Alaskan aod adjacent
waters.
Whether beavers and other fur-bear
ing animals are increasing or decreas
ing is a moot question. A report that
they are continually being trapped in
many localities, and thus all but exter
minated,-is offset-by an equally cred
ible report that in other sections they
are multiplying in such numbers as to
dam up toe streams and do vast dam
age Appraising the conflicting testi
mony at its probable worth, it, may be
sale to sav that the beaver, like the
larger animals, still abounds in num
bers,
W7ith the wbolfy inadequate, not to
say absurd, facilities provided for the
enforcement of the game law and the
preservation of wild life, it, is a plea
sure to bear testimony to the excellent
work of the small score of game war
dens aod Biologieai Survey agents
who. co-operating to the fullest extent
possible in a- country of such colossal
size as to keep them widely separated,
are doing their duty faithfully and
well. In the main, they take tbeir
work seriously and their service is
valuable.
Educationally, these men are doing
much in impressing upon people the
necessity of conserving game for their
own welfare. One of the wardens in
the First division, a lover of wild life
and student of Alaskan conditions, has
prepared a set of questionnaires on an
imals and birds, to be used in the
schools. These have been-adopted and
will come into general use. In thus
stimulating interest in and promoting
knowledge of game on the part of
teachers and pupils ibe work of con
serving bird and animal life will be
materially aided. This same game
warden has enlisted the co-operation
and aid of intelligent natives in his
jurisdiction, who wiM also-be * potent
influence for good.
If the present wholly inadequate sys
tem of supesvision and enforcement is
to continue, and under federal control,
it seems advisable to create a chief
game warden of the Biologieai Survey,
whose duty it would be to serve in the
field, visiting the various sections of
the Territory, and directing and super
vising the work of the small corps of
game wardens. Guidance is required
and closer co-ordination,- The gov
ernor. under the present system, C£Ml
onlv exercise care in the selection dj
game wardens and exaet monthly re
ports and proper accounting.
Maryland,- Pennsylvania and Ken
tucky are declared to hold 85>per cent
of the visible supply of liquor in the
United States, but anyone who contem
plates an immediate departure in the
direction of those common wealths
should remember that the'<visible sup
ply is no necessary relation to the
drinkable supply —Ex.
Arrange to Spend the Night at the
Big River Roadhouse
Best possible meals. Private rooms.
New dog kennels, and the best of lower river fish
for dog feed..
Diamond -Dick - - Proprietor
i
Stranger (at Continental palace
gates)—This is visitors' day, is it not?
Attendant—Yes, sav Shall 1 show
you ’round?
DStranger—Oh, don’t trouble. ] used
to be king here once.—Passing Show.
“You told me to fife these letters, .
sir,” said the new yeoman.
”Yes.” returned the officer.
“WeH, I was just thinkin’ that it’d ' .
be easier to trim ’em with a pair of
scissors.”'
i
LOUIS GORMAN
Big River
General Supplies Fresh From the
Outside.
Furs Bought and Sold
, Larson Roadhouse
(Formerly The McLean, Tacotna.)
Best- of Home Cooked Meals. Prompt Attention
New Dog Houses- Under Construction.
Mrs. Frank Larson - Proprietor
Geo. W. Hoffman
Pioneer Trader of the Ktiskakwim Valley
Napamute. Alaska:
New Goods Have Arrived
One of the best stocks ever brought into the
Kuskokwim Valley. Yes, the prices are right
ALASKA RIVERS NAVIGATION
COMPANY
Operating Light Draught Steamers
On the Kuskokwim.!
Capt. Wallace Langley, Manager, -
John E.. Baker
Independent .Candidates
for
Territorial Representative
Write His NametOn the;
Official Ballot,
-45.7-1.