80 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



hours, and as it does not take more than an hour at a time, we are 

 going to continue it until we l^a^■e cauglit all we need for our winter 

 supi)ly. It is not muck trouble to run down to the beach and haul 

 from 30 to 40 barrels of tomcod ashore, but for the Eskimos with their 

 l)rimitive implements it would reriuire a whole sunuuer's patient toil to 

 secure this amount of lish. AVhen Ave take into consideration that the 

 existence of these people during the winter depends upon the amount 

 of fish they can save in the summer, it is no wonder that they are very 

 grateful when they receive 30 to 40 barrels of fish at a time as a pres- 

 ent. In my recommendations I shall have something more to say about 

 the fishing near the station. 



Of visits to other herds, I have made only one, partly because it was 

 not found necessary this year and partly for other reasons which I 

 will mention later on. 



As heretofore stated, I sent, in accordance M'ith your instructions, a 

 herd to Cape Prince of Wales last lall. I have not visited this herd 

 since and know but little about it. The reason why I did not make a 

 visit there is partly that the herd was managed by a man familiar with 

 the care of reindeer — a Avhite man — and also that the distance is so 

 short, only 00 miles, and the intercourse between these two x)laces 

 S3 lively during the winter — that is to say, for Alaska — that every 

 change and everything done at this station and with our herd is at 

 once found cmt at Cape Prince of Wales, and in this way any improve- 

 ments made here can be adopted there. That herd was given to the 

 mission station unconditionally, permitting the manager there to do 

 as he pleased with the herd, his only obligation being the making of 

 an annual report to the Bureau of Education. I did not find this 

 unreasonal)le, but it determined my action in regard to visiting that 

 herd. In your instructions you probably intended to omit this herd so 

 far as visiting on my i)art was concerned. 



Antisarlook's herd was sent with a Laplander as chief manager 

 during the moving of the herd, but it was not regarded as necessary 

 or even desirable to have LaiDlanders continue to manage the herd. 

 The object was to find out what the Eskimos could do Avhen they were 

 left entirely to themselves to manage and plan as they pleased. The 

 purpose was to see what they would do when both the resi^onsibility 

 and the work and the profit were left to them without any interference. 



The Lapp and two other api)rentices i-eturned to the station as soon 

 as the herd and the camp had been established. There was no risk in 

 leaving everything to the judgment of the Eskimos, as the distance 

 between Antisarlook's herd and ours was only 30 miles and the means 

 of communication, the dog sleds, were in constant use, so that in case 

 anything should go wrong we could reach that herd in half a day and 

 assume its management, but this did not become necessary. 



Between the 0th of February and the 13th of March, Antisarlook's 

 herders had no help whatever from the station; not a word of advice 



