REINDEER AND MUSK-OX 



APPENDIX No. XIII 



REINDEER IN NORTHERN EUROPE 



Memorandum prepared from letter addressed to the Commission by Captain A. 



AIla?iach. 



Re Reindeer — 



I give you below some of the details I gathered whilst in the Arctic regions 

 which I trust will be of interest to the Commission enquiring into this matter. 



There are two questions which have arisen in my mind with regard to this 

 reindeer question since my last letter, the first being that of the wild reindeer, 

 purely for the quality and quantity of extra meat production, and the second 

 that of domesticated reindeer and their usefulness for packing and transport 

 purposes whilst snow is on the ground. 



Cost. — The prices asked by the Finnish owners at the time of my visit last 

 March and April, was 500 marks each. The marks at that time were worth 

 40 to the English sovereign, but as the Finnish exchange is now about 60 to the 

 pound, the cost at the present time of reindeer f.o.b. Bugo Fjord or Kirkenes, 

 both in northern Norway, would be about £9 each, i.e. about $40 to $50 each. 



A resume of my work in connection with the reconnaissance in northern 

 Finland will, no doubt, give you much information with regard to the habits 

 etc., of these animals. 



Owing to the gulf stream flowing around the most northerly point of Norway, 

 it is possible to sail from Bergen on a daily steamer to Vadso and Kirkenes, the 

 latter place usually having a channel for the boats to get in and out even in the 

 depth of winter. I disembarked at the end of March at Vadso, and was taken 

 across the Veranger Fjord to Bugo Fjord. This latter place, together with 

 Kirkenes, are the winter trade routes for the reindeer trains from the middle of 

 northern Finland to the seaboard, and either one or the other of these places 

 would be the most suitable place from which to ship the reindeer. In the 

 summer it would be a comparatively short journey direct from northern Norway 

 across the Arctic sea to the Hudson bay. The packer and guide of a reindeer 

 train is called a vapoose, and the sleigh which one rides in is a sort of half canoe, 

 with prow in front and runner underneath. This is called a pulka. The reindeer 

 are driven in single file, the vapoose going in front and the other following. I 

 have a large number of photographs of the trip which I shall be pleased to 

 forward to you from England if you consider same would be useful. 



Practically everything in connection with reindeer driving is utilized from 

 the reindeer itself. The halter round the reindeer's neck is made of reindeer 

 leather, and this is attached immediately in front of the animal's forelegs with a 

 cross piece made from reindeer horns, to this is then attached a piece of reindeer 

 leather, about three inches in diameter and four feet long, and this is fastened 

 to the prow of the pulka. This passes under the animal's belly between its fore 

 and hind legs. 



The reindeer utilized for trail work are male and female and they are altered 

 for domestic use. They weigh from about 80 to 100 pounds and can pull at 

 least six times their own weight for about ten hours per day. They cannot stand 

 any weight whatever upon their backs. 



