60 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



to train the apprentices in moving and in nomadic life, of wliicli more 

 hereafter. The moving in the spring was of course done for the pur- 

 pose of bringing the lierd to a place where the females could as com- 

 fortably as possible drop their fawns. This place had been selected 

 in the course of the winter. 



The first thing I did was to send the Lapps in different directions to 

 make themselves acquainted with the locality and with the pastures 

 before snow fall, and when I had acquainted myself in regard to the 

 conditions of the wind and weather, I decided that the herd ought to 

 be kept near the station at the time of dropping the fawns. On the 

 5th of January I set out with five reindeer east of the station to find a 

 suitable place for the cows to bear their young. I chose the coldest 

 part of the winter in order that I might be the better able to judge of 

 the condition of the various places. The first day we drove to Gowee- 

 rook village, about 45 miles distant. There we spent the night, and 

 the following day we drove in different directions, but continually 

 farther up the Goweerook Valley until we reached a place about 10 

 miles beyond the Eskimo habitation, and from there we returned to 

 the station. We spent two nights in the snow banks and five nights in 

 Eskimo tents, and we found wliat we sought, to wit, a sheltered i^lace 

 with good pasture. We arrived at tlie station the 13th of January. 



In the course of the winter the herd was scattered only once. This 

 was the night between the 7th and 8th of February, when a terrific 

 storm from the north raged so violently that no human being could be 

 out in it. On the morning of the 8th only 20 of the reindeer were 

 found to have been able to resist the storm. These were all tame sled 

 deer. None of the others were to be found, and after eight men, who 

 in the morning had gone out in diiterent directions to search for them, 

 returned to the camj) at noon, the result was that only uncertain 

 traces could be found in the snow south of the camp; and when two 

 men again went out to follow the footprints the herd was met driven by 

 five Eskimos toward the camp. The whole lierd had yielded to the 

 power of the storm and had started off in the same direction as the 

 wind. It had wandered across the ice to the south part of Grantley 

 Harbor to the vicinity of the village, where the Eskimos saw the ani- 

 mals feeding in the morning, and began to drive them back, meeting 

 our men on the way. 



We began training the deer in hauling sleds before the snow fell. All 

 but one of the deer whicli had been used the jirevious winter as sled 

 deer, had been sent with the mission herd to Cape Prince of Wales. The 

 one we had left was an old animal which we afterwards discovered was 

 able to live on corn meal; that is to say, it was one of the animals which 

 Miner W. Bruce had been experimenting with in this direction. After 

 making this discovery, this animal was called the ^'Corn Meal Sack," 

 and it is at present in the Antisarlook herd. About the time the snow 

 fell in sufiicient amount to give us sleighing, we had 5 reindeer that 



