POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWIST 369 



on Hudson Strait. All the deei' perished. Yet the failure of the 

 experiment must not be used as an argument against the possibility 

 of reindeer breeding in Arctic Canada. Siberian reindeer, for there 

 are many varieties of the reindeer, would probably have suited the 

 conditions better than the tamer and richer-feeding Norwegian 

 variety; and, furthermore, Baffin Island, as its small ice fields bear 

 witness, has a greater precipitation than most reindeer lands and a 

 humid climate seldom suits reindeer. The failure to acclimatize 

 reindeer in the Orkneys and the Scottish highlands many years ago 

 was attributed, no doubt rightly, to the dampness of the climate, for 

 the food supply was entirely adequate. Lastly, the wolves of Baffin 

 Island made serious inroads on the new flocks quite unprej)ared to 

 defend themselves from this unknown enemy. The wolf is a far 

 more serious enemy than man to the reindeer and more effective in 

 reducing numbers. 



There is no reason to suppose that the domestication of reindeer, 

 starting with Siberian stock and gradually introducing the American 

 caribou, will be anything but successful in most parts of the Canadian 

 tundra, in the rich pasture lands of western Greenland, and the more 

 restricted areas of Spitsbergen. All these regions have supported 

 vast numbers of reindeer in the past and should do so again if exces- 

 sive hunting is curbed, wise game laws instituted, and the wolf ex- 

 terminated, as Canada is endeavoring to do. Already the killing of 

 reindeer in Spitsbergen is totally prohibited until 1934, the first 

 enactment of Norway's rule in her Arctic possession.^* 



Alaska is said to have pasturage for 4,000,000 reindeer. Basing his 

 estimate on this figure, Stefansson calculates that the Arctic tundras 

 as a whole are capable of supporting about 100,000,000 reindeer and 

 perhaps five times as many musk ox. This is probably an over- 

 sanguine estimate, for it must be remembered that the Alaskan herds 

 are mainly in the more fertile valleys of the south and southwest, 

 which have few, if any, equals in fertility in the tundras farther 

 north; but even if we reduce the numbers considerably, say by as 

 much as 50 per cent, there remains a possible food production from 

 the waste Arctic lands equivalent to some 1,000,000,000 sheep, or 

 more than ten times the total number of sheep that Australia now 

 supports. 



This would, of course, take many years to accomplish, and nat- 

 urally will not occur until the temperate lands of the world are 

 more fully occupied than at present. But gradually, as world popu- 

 lation multiplies and food production has to be increased, the lands 

 that are not fit for cereal growth will command attention by their 



" Norwegian proposals for game laws are published in Naturfredning i Norge, 

 Arsberetning, 1926 (Oslo, 1926). See also Scottish Geog. Mag., May, 1926. 



