INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 31 



States ever seen. Leaving Sau Francisco in spring, during the early 

 ])art of tlie cruise slie patrols the North Pacific, enforcing tlie regula- 

 tions with regard to sealing, also preventing smuggling and exercising 

 a salutary iniluence generally along the southern shore of the mainland 

 of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Later in the season when the ice 

 retreats before the summer heat, slje turns northward into Bering Sea 

 and the Arctic Ocean. In these waters, in addition to performing the 

 ordinary duties of a revenue cutter, protecting the interests of the cus- 

 toms and preventing smuggling, she furnishes relief to the ships of the 

 arctic whaling fleet and all other vessels in times of peril and disaster. 

 During the past fifteen years she has rescued and taken from the bleak 

 and sterile coast of western and arctic Alaska more than a thousand 

 shipwrecked mariners and destitute miners. She collects all possible 

 geographical, ethnological, and scientific information; she att'ords pro- 

 tection when needed to thousands of half-civilized natives, whalers, 

 traders, teachers, and missionaries, and to anyone in distress; to her 

 captain, as the sole representative of the authority of the LTuited States, 

 are referred troubles between whaling captains and their crews, and his 

 advice is sougiit on all subjects; her surgeon furnishes the only med- 

 ical attendance which white men and natives along thousands of miles 

 of coast ever receive; most of the mission houses and school buildings 

 in the Arctic were erected with the aid other carpenter; during the 

 past five years her usefulness has been still further increased by coop- 

 erating with the Bureau of Education in procuring and transporting 

 reindeer from Siberia into Alaska, Since 1884 her commanding ofticer 

 has been Capt. Michael A. Healy, and the ability, zeal, and faithfulness 

 with which he has discharged his multifarious duties has rendered his 

 name famous throughout the land. 



During the entire cruise I was fortunate in having as my shipmates 

 in the captain's cabin Dr. Benjamin Sharp, secretary of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and his friend, Mr. John M. 

 Justice, also of Philadelphia. 



Leaving the wharf at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, on June 24, the Jiear 

 headed for the seal islands, St. Paul and St. George, lying 250 miles to 

 the north. 



In 1786, when the supply of furs upon the Aleutian Islands began to 

 decrease, efforts were made to discover the summer retreat of the seal. 

 For years it had been noticed that they went north in the spring and 

 returned in the fall with their young, but so well had nature hidden 

 these islands that the Russian (lerassim Gavrilovich Pribilof cruised 

 around them for three weeks in his vessel St. George without discover- 

 ing them. At last the fog lifted and their green shores and rocks 

 covered with seal were sighted. Soon the islands becauu- the "bank" 

 which supplied Baranof with funds to carry on his government in 

 Alaska. If he needed supplies for his colonies, all he had to do was to 

 kill seal and pay in seal skins. In order that the seal might not be 



