DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 13 



habitual carelessness. Those that remained regularly made good prog- 

 ress and manifested an adaptation to the work that augurs well for 

 their future success. 



One of the tendencies observed in the apprentices is a feeling that 

 as soon as they can throw a lasso and drive a team that they have 

 learned all that they need to know, and that after a few months' service, 

 they are fully competent to take the entire charge of the herd. I have 

 noticed the same disposition among the natives of southeast Alaska in 

 learning the carpenter or other trades. 



Because a fireman on a locomotive learns to open and» shut certain 

 valves, and start, slow down, or stop the engine, it does not follow that 

 he is competent to take the engineer's place. No more does it follow 

 because an Eskimo man gains a little experience with reindeer that 

 he is able to take charge of a herd. In Lapland where the people have 

 greater intelligence and the advantage of heredity, a young man is 

 required to serve an apprenticeship of five years before he is considered 

 competent to manage for himself. Mr. William A. Kjellmann, who was 

 brought up among the Lapps and spent much of his life in dealing with 

 reindeer, writes wisely that — 



To learn to be a good herder or deer man takes as much time as to learn any other 

 trade. It is not only necessary to learn how to throw a lasso, how to drive or keep 

 good watch while with the herd, but the main part is to know how to take care of 

 the fawns so that the herd can increase, to select a good sheltered place to keep the 

 herd when the fawns are born, to know how to make use of every particle of the 

 deer so that nothing is thrown away, and to learn to think and act quickly in an 

 emergency, and stand any hardship when necessary to save the herd. All this may 

 be looked upon by outsiders as soon learned, but it is not so. It is only acquired by 

 attention and long practice. 



In addition to their duties with the herd, a small amount of school- 

 ing was furnished, and arrangements have been made by which during 

 the present year each apprentice will have four full mouths of school. 



Besides food, clothing, and instruction each apprentice that does well 

 throughout the entire year is given 2 female deer, at the end of the 

 second year 5, and at the end of the third and each succeeding year 

 that he remains at the station, 10. This, at the end of a five years' 

 course, will give each one 37 deer with the increase which will probably 

 bring his holding up to 50. 



HERD. 



On the 30th of September, 1893, a count of the herd showed 343 head 

 of reindeer. During the winter 20 were lost by disease and accident. 

 During April, May, and June, 1891, 186 fawns were born, of which 41 

 were lost by being frozen or deserted by their mothers, the thermometer 

 registering during the calving season 30° below zero. 



During the summer of 1894, 120 head of deer were purchased in 

 Siberia and transported to the Teller Station, making a total of 588. 



