DOMESTICATION OF RUMINATING MAMMALS 329 
FIRST ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE REINDEER INTO 
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES 
In 1911 the Forestry Branch of the Department of the 
Interior undertook the first attempt to introduce reindeer 
into Canada from.St. Anthony, Newfoundland, where, as 
already stated, the herd had been established by Doctor 
W. T. Grenfell. A small herd of fifty deer, comprising forty 
does, six stags, and four oxen, was purchased from him. 
They were shipped from St. Anthony on September 7, 1911, 
to Quebec, via North Sydney, N. 8. Accompanying them 
were three experienced herders, thirty days’ supply of rein- 
deer moss, and three deer dogs. From Quebec they were 
transported in stock-cars by rail to Edmonton, and thence 
sixty miles north, which was as far as the railroad had been 
at that time completed. From that point they were taken 
in waggons to Athabaska Landing, where they were unloaded 
into four scows, the final destination of the herd being Fort 
Smith. After many difficulties the herd, now reduced by 
deaths to thirty-three animals, was taken to a place about 
seventy miles from Fort Smith, where a camp was estab- 
lished in November. In May, 1912, the herd, now compris- 
ing thirty-one animals, was transported on scows to Fort 
Smith, where quarters had been prepared for them. Dur- 
ing the latter part of June the flies (‘‘bull-dog”’ flies or Ta- 
banide) became very troublesome, and the whole herd of 
reindeer stampeded, escaped from the enclosure, and scat- 
tered, with the result that the chief herder was only able 
to recapture twelve of the thirty-one animals. On account 
of the abundance of the flies it was decided to remove what 
remained of this herd elsewhere, for the summer months, 
and a suitable island in Great Slave Lake was selected, but 
as no boat could be obtained at that time the reindeer had 
to remain at Fort Smith until the following year, when the 
flies again tormented the animals to such an extent that they 
