REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 255 



material they need for making boots, skin-boats (or kayaks), 

 and clothing. These animal tendons are taken and dried, 

 and fetch from ten to fifty cents for each animal. They 

 strip easily into single fibres, and these separate threads 

 form a strong sewing material, which resists water, and yet, 

 when used in boots intended to be water-tight, swells up 

 as soon as the boots are immersed in moisture. In this 

 way leakage through the needle holes is prevented. The 

 tendons do not rot easily, nor do they tear the skin sub- 

 stances, for they contract and expand with that material. 

 Even the horns and hoofs are valuable, and furnish many 

 of the household essentials of the natives. Some of these 

 various manufactured products can be exported to the 

 European markets. Reindeer may thus largely increase the 

 earning capacity of any region, by converting its unsalable 

 material into valuable products. The fresh rich milk of 

 the does in the summer has also supplied us with what is 

 a vital necessity, and one which was obtainable in Labrador 

 in no other way ; while the excellent and easily made cheeses 

 afford a method of storing the nutriment in a palatable 

 and assimilable form without any necessary outlay for a 

 preserving plant. 



Reindeer have shown themselves to be regular breeders, 

 comparing more than favourably with ordinary cattle stock. 

 Reindeer herds may be expected to at least double them- 

 selves in three years. Does will breed the second year, 

 and after that with great regularity bear one fawn as 

 a rule, though occasionally two. Only a comparatively 

 few stags are needed to serve a large number of does. So 

 large were our own Newfoundland fawns at the end of 

 their first season, in this our first year of experiment, that 



