572, ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



the consent of the Eussian Government, a purchasing station some- 

 where on the Siberian coast, to remain through the year (Appendix F). 

 If successful such a station ought to gather together 2,000 or 3,000 

 head and have them ready for transportation during the summer. 

 Another plan, and a more feasible one, will be to contract with respon- 

 sible parties for the purchasing and delivering of so many head of rein- 

 deer annually at certain designated points in Alaska. This latter plan 

 will relieve the office of much anxiety. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE, 



There are in northern and central Alaska, at a moderate estimate, 

 400,000 square miles of territory that are unadapted to agriculture or the 

 grazing of cattle, and that region is without an adequate food supply 

 for the Eskimo inhabitants or the white miners and others who are now 

 penetrating it in search of gold or trade. But that whole region is 

 supplied with a long, fibrous white moss {Cladonia rangiferina), the 

 natural food of the reindeer. This is capable of becoming food and 

 clothing for men only by its transformation into reindeer meat and furs. 



The best results in the raising of reindeer, and the most complete 

 statistics, are found in Norway and Sweden. Taking those countries 

 as a basis, we find that the northern provinces known as Lapland con- 

 tain an area of 14,000 square miles, in which are 322,568 head of rein- 

 deer. This gives an average of 23 reindeer to the square mile. 



Applying this ratio to the 400,000 square miles of -arctic and sub- 

 arctic Alaska (and there is no known reason in the general character 

 of the country why we should not), we have as a result that Alaska 

 is capable of sustaining 9,200,000 head of reindeer, which, at the valu- 

 ation of $9 each (the price in Sweden), will be worth $83,000,000. 



In Lapland there is an average of 32 head of reindeer to each person 

 among the reindeer Lapps. Applying the same average to Alaska, 

 the 9,200,000 head of reindeer will support a population of 287,500, 

 living like the Lapps of Lapland. 



EFFECT UPON ALASKA. 



The stocking of Alaska with reindeer means — 



First. The opening up of the vast and almost inaccessible region of 

 northern and central Alaska to white settlers and civilization. 



The original purpose in 1890 to introduce reindeer into Alaska was 

 insj)ired by a desire to provide a new and more permanent food supply 

 for the half-famishing Eskimo. 



Since then the discovery of large and valuable gold deposits upon 

 the streams of arctic and subarctic Alaska has made the introduction of 

 reindeer a necessity for the white man as well as the Eskimo. Previous 

 to the discovery of gold there was nothing to attract the white settler to 

 that desolate region, but with the knowledge of valuable gold deposits 

 thousands will there make their homes, and towns and villages are 

 already springing into existence. 



