154 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



were first imported to teach them; but, of late, the more intelligent and 

 efficient Laplanders, who have learned by centuries of experience the 

 breeding of reindeer, were secured. The Eskimo boys take quickly to 

 some phases of the work, and, in some respects, excel the Lapps; they 

 can lasso better than the Lapps, and many become expert in making 

 harness and sleds. The minding of the herd requires constant vigi- 

 lance, especially in the spring during the fawning season. Then the 

 herders have to keep watch day and night by turns with rifle to protect 

 the herd from the ravages of the Arctic wolf and the dogs. 



In the ear of each Government deer a little aluminum button is 

 fastened securely, and all private owners and herders have a mark 

 which must be registered with a local Superintendent of the Reindeer 

 Station and also at Washington. Besides being taught the art of deer- 

 manship,the apprentices are instructed in keeping accounts, the methods 

 of marketing reindeer, and in other practical matters connected with 

 the industry. No apprentice can become a herder unless he is proficient 

 in the branches of elementary reading, arithmetic, and writing. At the 

 end of his apprenticeship the young Eskimo native is allotted a number 

 of deer by the Government, and with the increase obtained during the 

 interval of his five years' service, each apprentice will have on an aver- 

 age, a herd of fifty reindeer. As this herd will double itself every three 

 years, the graduate apprentice will have a herd which will afford and 

 assure a self-supporting income quite enough to satisfy the economic 

 wants of himself and family in the future. He is thus established in 

 business by the Government and is given free pasturage thereafter. The 

 reindeer produces one fawn in the spring each year for ten years. 



Among the useful and profitable products of the reindeer are the 

 skins for clothing.* Of these pelts most varied use is made. From them 

 are fashioned the tight-fitting trousers and that wonderful outer gar- 

 ment, the 'parka,' universally worn in winter by both male and female 

 natives and by many whites. The 'parka' extends to the knees and has 

 a close-fitting hood, which keeps the head and shoulders comfortably 

 warm even in the severest weather. These reindeer garments are re- 

 markable for their excellent qualities of resisting moisture and cold. A 

 close examination of the hair of reindeer furnishes an explanation of its 

 peculiar value. The hair is not merely a hollow tubular structure, with 

 a cavity extending throughout its entire length, but is divided, or par- 

 titioned off, into exceedingly numerous cells, like watertight compart- 

 ments. These are filled with air, and their walls are so elastic and at 



♦"Buckskin is now worth $4.50 to $5.00 a pound and is steadily going up, 

 since nothing has been discovered to take its place. A good-sized buckskin weighs 

 from one pound to one and a half pounds; so that the skin alone will pay for the 

 cost of raising the deer." — Letter from E. Thompson Seton, April 9, 1914- 



