46 INTKODIICTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



of making and saving some money. This was my last card. I had no 

 doubt tliat the prospect of accumulating some money, which on their 

 return could be deposited in a bank, would induce them to leave their 

 old mountains. An empty sled passed, and I at once jumped into it 

 and drove to the nearest station, I bid these stubborn people good-bye, 

 but before doing so they agreed to send a man down from the moun- 

 tains to meet me at Bosekop the 26th March, and bring me the result 

 of their deliberations with their families, and I promised not to engage 

 any other Lapps before that date. 



In the meantime 1 went to Talvik, and beyond there to Stoe-Sandnoes 

 and Tappeluft, to see some of the Lapps camping on the mountains in 

 the vicinity. None of them could make up their minds at once to make 

 a contract, nor did 1 want them to do so ; I merely wanted to have them 

 in reserve in case I failed to secure those I had already talked with at 

 Bosekop. 



On the 2Gth of March I was at the place agreed on, and on the same 

 day two Lapps also arrived. I secured their services, and I at once made 

 a contract with three Lapps, the two present having authority to sign 

 for a third party, who was absent. Having secured these three, I looked 

 upon my mission as a success, for the three men belonged to the best 

 families of Kontotseino, and when they were willing to go to Alaska I 

 was sure that it would be easy to get as many more as I wanted. On 

 the 28th a third man came to make a contract, but on account of a law- 

 suit in regard to a sack of flour he was not certain that he could get 

 away. I consulted the lensmand in Bosekop in reference to the sack 

 of flour, but as he declined to act in the matter it became necessary for 

 me to go to Hammerfest at once. There I secured the release of the 

 Lapp and permission for him to emigrate, and I returned to Bosekop on 

 the 1st of April. This Lapp then also signed the contract and went to 

 the mountains to get ready for the journey, which was set for April 15. 

 This last Lapp also had authority to sign for another one, and so I had 

 now secured five in all. We agreed to meet on the 13th of Ajiril, as we 

 would need a couple of days for the final preparation. I had now 

 secured five families, and four of them were those that I had originally 

 planned to get. 



After completing the contracts I again went to Talvik to inform the 

 Lapps there that I had already secured the required number, and that 

 they did not need to give the matter any further attention. On this 

 journey I received your letter requesting me to secure a sixth family, 

 viz, a Roman Catholic, to be sent to a Eoman Catholic station in Alaska 

 and herd the reindeer there. But a Eoman Catholic family of Lapps 

 was more difficult to get than five more Protestant families, for nearly all 

 the Lapps are Lutherans. I learned, however, that a Lapp boy had been 

 adopted by a Roman Catholic missionary station at Altengaard, in the 

 vicinity. The boy had got tired of the narrow limits of the missionary 



