INTKODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. (')3 



Very few words were spoken the next ten or iil'teen niiniiles, and 

 then Per went oil to pilot the other two men with the deer into the 

 hidden camp. 



Per Spein is away in search oi" a road to (hive the Jicj'd up tlie 

 Yukon. This is liis second chiy out, l)ut is expected home to-night. 

 I hope he will come, so we can get ready to leave camp day after 

 to morrow. Oin- driving deer were let loose to join the herd imme- 

 diately on their arrival this afternoon. 



Tuesday, Novemher 21^. — ]\Iost of the forenoon to-day was spent 

 in packing sleds and getting harnesses and lassos in trim. Every- 

 thing seems to go very slowly. All the men started for the herd 

 at noon to lasso driving deer for the trij) from here to Bethel. This 

 was not a small item of the preparator}' work, since we will have 

 need of at least 25 such deer. The day has been most beautiful 

 and quite cold. As it looks to-night, there is good reason to hope 

 for a beautiful da}^ to-morrow. The moon is bright and the whole 

 heavens set most magnificently with the lesser lights of the night. 



Wednesday, Novemher 25. — The last night's rest was certainly 

 very poor. Some of the people in camp have been working all 

 night — at least they have pretended so — and made a lot of noise. At 

 4 o'clock I was up and prepared breakfast, and at 7 a. m. Bals, 

 Nallogoroak, and myself were ready to bring the deer for a start 

 on the long and difficult journey. Per Sara had now joined his 

 parents and continued in their company. But all those people 

 needed at least four more hours in which to get ready. When we 

 came to take our deer two of them had broken loose. The one 

 was soon caught, but the other one ran for the mountains. This 

 was unfortunate, but had it ended the mishaps of the da}^ we could 

 have considered ourselves fortunate. Michael and Martin Sara — 

 two lads of 16 and 10 years, respectively — had gone to l)ring the 

 herd in our way, to be driven \>^ Bals, Nallogoroak, and myself, 

 with the said Michael. Sara and Spein, with families, should follow 

 us closel}^ after. Bals had his two deer all ready, so he drove on, 

 while Nallogoroak and I got hold of the runawaA^s. 



Because of the one deer which went to the mountains we had one 

 more sled than deer, so we arranged for putting two sleds after one 

 deer until we could reach the herd. This would have worked well 

 for a few miles, but to our great mortification one of the deer given 

 us refused to work at all. It was not broken to work at all, and 

 when, after a hard struggle, we finally got the harness on, it simply 

 lay down. It was already a couple of hours since Bals had gone 

 with the herd, and Nallogoroak and I began to understand that 

 these efforts were all in vain. The Lapps were not ready, and appa- 

 rently did not care whether they got away to-day or to-morrow. 

 Then I started at once in pursuit of the herd to stop it until enough 



