296 VALUABLE ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC 



Some of the Indians and Eskimos have a separate trace for each dog, which 

 enables the team to spread out fanwise when travelling over the ice, but for 

 land journeys the tandem team is considered better alike for speed and safety. 



In the Northwest the harness is made of moose skin and is often decorated 

 with ribbons and little bells. The dogs seem to enjoy the tinkling, and if the 

 bells are taken away from them they sulk and do not go half so well. As a 

 protection against frozen snow the feet of the dogs are protected with skin* 

 shoes. In summer the dogs are turned loose and go off by themselves in packs, 

 but before the winter comes on they return to their old masters, usually accom- 

 panied by puppies. 



Next to the dog, probably, the most valuable animal to the Eskimo is the 

 reindeer. In Uncle Sam's territory of Alaska this is recognized to the extent 

 of placing the animals under government supervision. Tens of thousands of 

 them are kept at Wainwright, Alaska, 



An encouraging feature of the work there, far from markets and utterly 

 shut out from any considerable contact with white men, is the fact that the 

 native is slowly but certainly coming to recognize the great possibilities of the 

 reindeer industry. While every effort has been made to give as many natives 

 as possible an interest in the herds by direct ownership of some of the deer, 

 the owners of deer are still a very small minority. 



So valuable has a Government apprenticeship come to be considered that 

 it has often been the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the dusky 

 love affairs. 



"When you get some reindeer I will be your wife," says the Innuit maiden 

 with the tattooed chin. These wise young ladies know that the ownership of 

 deer carries with it as a usual thing three or four years of first class Govern- 

 ment rations and piles of cloth and clothing which Uncle Sam throws about 

 in the Arctic with a generous hand. So among the natives there is developing 

 a sort of reindeer aristocracy quite at variance with the old democratic, com- 

 munistic ideas of the others who hold no property worth while and who have 

 not been favored by the Government. 



If the moss is poor the deer may feed for six hours at the end of which time 

 they are driven back to the vicinity of the camp and allowed to remain there 

 until the next feeding time, while the ease loving servants of the Government 

 sleep or whittle fine old ivory into curios to be traded off on the ships for the 

 tobacco which Uncle Sam overlooked in ordering the shiploads of supplies 

 which annually find their way to the reindeer camps of Alaska. 



