INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 61 



could be used as sled deer, aud we coutiuued training the animals dur- 

 ing" the winter, so that there are now 1^7 trained animals in the herd. 

 We have kept from 8 to 17 of these continually at the station from 

 the 3d of November, 1894, to the 16th of June, 1895. These animals 

 have been employed every working day for bringing fuel aud lum- 

 ber to the station. They have been fed on moss, and had their night 

 quarters in a shed built last fall for that purpose, until the middle of 

 February, when the moss gathered last fall gave out. Since that time 

 they have been tethered in a pasture every evening. This involved a 

 good deal of work, as the animals had to be tethered 3 or 4 miles from 

 the station, and the fuel and lumber had to be brought from 5 to 10 

 miles from the opposite side of the station. 



There is no moss to be found nearer than 3 to 4 miles in any direc- 

 tion, from the fact that the herd, unfortunately, had been kept for a 

 cou'i)le of years pasturing in the immediate vicinity of the station and 

 had consumed all the reindeer moss, if there ever was any. We often 

 tried to feed the reindeer in new ways, since we at once found that the 

 Eskimos did not have, or were not able and would not for a long time be 

 able, to secure any more corn meal than could find j)lace in their own 

 empty stomachs. 



So many animals being needed for daily use, and these having to be 

 changed every three or four weeks, the beginners not being able to 

 stand the prolonged, steady work, it became necessary to train a few 

 2-year-olds after all the older ones had been brought into service. This 

 practice is not to be recommended, but the Siberian reindeer being 

 somewhat larger and stronger than 2-year-olds in Lapland, and they 

 being handled with the greatest care, I do not think they were dam- 

 aged in any way. Of the animals trained and in the process of train- 

 ing, 4 had to be or were killed, as you will see from the quarterly 

 statement, and the reason for this was that they were left to the 

 apprentices for practice. Asa rule, about 10 per cent of the animals 

 that are being trained will be lost, no matter how skillfully the work is 

 done. Last fall some of the animals were also trained to carry pack 

 saddles. They were used, and are still being used, in transporting the 

 provisions from one camp to another. 



The time for dropping the fawns comes one month earlier here than 

 in Lapland. This circumstance, in connection with the fact that the 

 weather is colder all the year around, makes it more difficult to save 

 the fawns here than there. We had been very successful in the change 

 of quarters for the herd during the most important season. A daybook 

 kept by one of the Lapps shows fine weather, continuous calm, wliile we 

 here at the station were constantly exi)0sed to a cold, north wind, 

 with occasional sleet. In Lapland the fawns are dropped from the 

 beginning to the 10th of May, while here the first were born on the 

 lOtli of Ai)ril and the last on the 16th of June. 



It had already been noticed last fall that the dropping of the fawns 



