Two Dianas in Alaska

Book excerpt: "My friend shudders at my slaying a rhinoceros, but manages to eat part of an unfortunate sheep immediately afterwards. I wonder if the good lady's words ring true. She may be right, and books on sport and adventure are only for men and boys, the sterner sex. If, therefore, you, reader o' mine, should regard all forms of taking life as unwomanly, read no more . . . We went to Alaska to shoot, and-we shot." --From chapter 1 In the first decade of the twentieth century, Agnes Herbert (ca. 1880-1960) and her cousin Cecily hunted on three continents, and Herbert wrote a book about each excursion. This, her second, traces the story of the women's Alaskan hunt, undertaken in part with two men. The foursome formed two expeditions, sometimes setting up camp together and sometimes going their own ways. The women's trophies included brown bear, walrus, caribou, Dall sheep, and moose; and Cecily bagged herself a husband, as well.