QQ INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINEEER INTO ALASKA. 



Friday, Noveinber 27. — The day lias been a very beautiful one. A 

 light northeasterly breeze has been l)lo\ving and it has Ijeen quite 

 chilly, but not disagreeably cold. We began our preparations for the 

 day's journey at 5 a. m., and at 8 o'clock all the sleds were packed and 

 stretched out in a line on the Yukon. Nallogoroak and Bals went up 

 on the mountains after the sled deer and the herd, while I walked ahead 

 a distance of Si or 4 miles to an Indian village. The purpose was 

 twofold, the chief one being to find out the exact way to travel, and 

 secondly, to see if any dry fish could be procured. Nallogoroak had 

 not been himself for several days because of not having had anj^ such 

 food. On my way I met a native who gave me quite good directions 

 to follow. That is, he made a drawing in the snow, because not a word 

 of his language was understood by me. That same drawing I repro- 

 duced at once on a paper for future reference. Having arrived at the 

 village the same inquiries were made, and again an Indian drew a 

 map on the snow, and, when he had finished, I reproduced that one also. 

 Upon comparing the two they were found to be exactly alike. Fish, 

 however, could not be bought, because they seemed not to understand 

 exactly what I wanted. The herd was expected to come directly 

 after me, but again there was quite a little waiting to be done. Not 

 until 11 o'clock did it arrive. Nallogoroak had then come nearly 

 an hour before. He was able to get 5 dry and moldy salmon at 20 

 cents a piece, and 5 white fishes at 10 cents. 



It is needless to state that we had a happy Eskimo in the crowd the 

 remainder of the day. For some unknown reason, the young Sara 

 lad was not accompanying the herd to-day. On that account I had to 

 take his place to drive on the herd for the da}'. Bals went ahead and 

 Nallogoroak followed as usual close after with our provision, tent, etc. 

 If we had a late start, we made it good by the better traveling during 

 the afternoon. No doubt a 20 miles distance lies between us here and 

 where we were camped last night. We made camp at 4 o'clock. All 

 has gone well except that I got a heavy blow on my left big toe in run- 

 ning against a stump during one of my deer's wild outbursts in trying 

 to run awa}^. Now I sit in my sleeping bag having snowy applica- 

 tions to my swollen black and blue, not toe only, but foot. Sara and 

 Spein have not showed up at all, and it will soon be 8 p. m. Likely 

 they will not be able to catch up to-night. 



Saturday, November 28. — This day has been a perfect day. True 

 it is that the morning was a little foggy and dark, but it soon cleared 

 up and a northerly wind has been blowing, and still continues, only a 

 little stronger this evening. Last night after we had gone into sleep- 

 ing bags and slept for a while fSara and Spein came. It must have 

 been about 10 o'clock when they reached here. And on that account 

 they were, as usual, not ready again in the morning. Two new driving 



