REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION 



APPENDIX No. XIV 



REINDEER IN SIBERIA 



Excerpts from submissions of Commodore B. P. BerthoJf, formerly Commander of 

 United States Coast Guard Service in Bering Sea. 



Commodore Bertholf first went to the Bering sea in 1897, as one of the 

 officers in charge of the Government schooner Bear, which was sent to the rescue 

 of whalers at Point Barrow. 



He was a member of the overland expedition, which was separate from the 

 party which accompanied the deer from Cape Prince of Wales to Point Barrow, 

 and could, therefore, give but little information regarding the handling of the deer 

 on this particular expedition overland. 



With regard to the deer purchased by him for the United States Govern- 

 ment at Ola, he states: — 



"Dr. Jackson, being thoroughly convinced that the plan of estab- 

 lishing domestic reindeer herds in Alaska was successful, turned his mind 

 to improving the breed. Having learned that in the neighbourhood of the 

 Okhotsk sea there was a larger and hardier breed of reindeer than those 

 usually met with on the northeast coast of Siberia, he suggested that I 

 should go to that region to investigate, and if possible purchase some of 

 the larger deer. 



"It was believed that better time could be made by travelling to the 

 Okhotsk sea overland in winter, rather than going by sea in the summer 

 and waiting for the country to become passable. Consequently, I 

 journeyed to Ola by way of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Irkutsk. From 

 there we travelled by horse-post down the Lena river to Yakutsk; from 

 there over the divide to Okhotsk by horse, reindeer and dog-post. Leaving 

 Yakutsk, the first portion of the post route was travelled by means of 

 horses. Then we changed to reindeer until about fifty miles from Okhotsk, 

 and from there along the coast of the Okhotsk sea to Ola by dog post. 



"Arriving at Ola, which is a small Tunguska village, couriers were 

 sent out to the large deermen in the vicinity to come to town at my 

 request. After several conferences, arrangements were made to purchase 

 400 or 600 deer, and to have them driven to the immediate vicinity of 

 Ola in the spring, as soon as the mail steamers began to run. We con- 

 structed corrals for the rapid hobbling of the deer, and collected sufficient 

 moss to feed the deer while on board steamer. I proceeded to Vladivo- 

 stock and chartered the Qt^SLxner Progress, returned to Ola and took the deer 

 aboard, also the moss, and transported them to Port Clarence. The 

 deer purchased were very young, mostly females, and the horns, of 

 course, were in the velvet. We had bad weather for the trip from Ola to 

 Port Clarence and many of the deer died, so that if my memory serves 

 me, we arrived at Port Clarence with about 250 head. These deer were 

 purchased with cash as the natives in that part of Siberia understand 

 modern ways of trading. We paid ten rubles a piece for the deer, which 

 was a good price from the native standpoint." 



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