DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 89 



Much of the country west of the Rockies, including almost the entire region north of 

 the Yukon River in Alaska, is typical reindeer ground. Northeastern Alaska fairly 

 swarms with the animals, which winter iu vast herds on the plateaus lying north 

 of Forty Mile River, in the neighborhood of the boundary line, according to the 

 observations of Surveyor Ogilvie. Dr. Solmatha spoke in his report of their cross- 

 ing places on the upper Yukon and the immense size of the herds which passed. 

 Ogilvie says: "Two kinds of caribou are found between the Yukon and the Macken- 

 zie, one of the ordinary kind, said to much resemble the reindeer [note the confusion 

 in the old backwoodman's mind], and the other called the wood caribou, a much 

 larger and more beautiful animal, though its antlers are smaller." 



The ordinary caribou run in herds, he notices, often numbering hundreds, are 

 easily approached, aud when fired at with guns are so disconcerted that they often 

 run toward the hunter. Not until many have been killed do they take flight. Then 

 they start on a continuous run aud do not stop for 20 or 30 miles. When the Indians 

 find a herd they surround it, gradually contracting the circle; when the animals 

 being too timid to break through are slaughtered wholesale. They also build fence 

 traps with flanking wings, leading to deep snow pits, into which the deer are driven 

 and dispatched. At La Pierre's House, a trading post in latitude 67° 24', 2,000 deer 

 tongues were brought in by the Indians in one year. These people build their lodges 

 after the exact patterns of the Tungusi tribe in eastern Siberia, and dress in the 

 same way. A great many woodland caribou are killed in the forests in February 

 and March. There is a high plateau at the head of Tat-ou-duc River, in latitude 

 65° 43', longitude 139° 43', where the other kind is hunted; and there are numerous 

 high mountains upon whose naked slopes the deer dig in the snow for moss, standing 

 face up hill, pawing away the frosty covering aud pulling it down toward them 

 with their forefeet, thereby exposing patches of the succulent growth, which having 

 cropped they proceed to draw the snow from above into the bared space, and so 

 advance gradually to the crest of the slope. Some patches of ground which had 

 been pawed over were found to extend for more than a mile in length by a quarter 

 of a mile in breadth. The parasite pest is noticed here. 



In northwestern Alaska the Eskimos have almost exterminated the reindeer from 

 a belt 75 miles wide adjacent to the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea, and the herds do 

 not come up to the coast any more; so that the improvident and happy-go-lucky 

 inhabitants have been constantly in a state of semistarvation for several years, and 

 a great many have died. Herendeen, a polar traveler, in speaking of the annual 

 winter hunts of the Eskimos, erstwhile, in the vicinity of Point Barrow, mentions 

 incidentally that the reindeer dig the moss out of the snow with their splay hoofs, 

 which are admirably fitted for the purpose, though the nose undoubtedly does its 

 part. The snow fall there will not average more than 18 inches for the winter, and 

 the continuous high winds which prevail blow it off the tundra, so that a covering 

 of only a few inches remains for the caribou to remove. The supply of moss is practi- 

 cally inexhaustible. It is this depopulated and desolate tract that the Government 

 of the United States is making such commendable efforts to restock by importations 

 from Siberia. Naturally, we are interested to obtain all possible information regard- 

 ing the reindeer of that country across the strait, and fortunately the two years 

 continuous residence there of Mr. Richard J. Bush, who was engaged in locating a 

 route for a transcontinental telegraph liue from Washington to St. Petersburg in 

 1866, has placed the world in possession of all attainable facts, so that very little of 

 the life history and habits of this extraordinary animal, so indispensable to the 

 inhabitants of that region, is left unknown. 



In Siberia the majority of wild reindeer are represented to be white, and the rest 

 brown with white bellies. The domestic reindeer range from white to dark brown, 

 some being beautifully spotted. They are whitest about June 20, by which time 

 they have shed their winter coats. The males stand about 5 feet high, and have 

 pendent bells or tufts of thick hair under their throats. Their hoofs are immense 

 and rattle when they walk. Both sexes have horns, the male horns sometimes 



