68 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



at all to-morrow. The herd is doing excellently w(>ll. It is hard to 

 drive over these vast mossy fields since we are only two — Michael 

 and I — to chase. 



Monday, Noi^emher 30. — At 11 o'clock last night the Saras and 

 Speins turned into camp. At 3 o'clock this morning when I woke 

 up hearing laughter and talk in the Lapp's tent, I feared we had over- 

 slept, but the matter of fact was they had not yet retired, nor did the}^ 

 do so that night. Still they caused us considerable delay in getting 

 ready this morning. When the herd was brought at S o'clock some 

 new sled deer had to be caught for Sara. This performance took 

 them nearly an hour. Then Per was to take Michael's place to help 

 me drive the herd to-day. We had, however, not traveled more than 

 4 or 5 miles when we were fully convinced that it was an impossibility 

 to make any headway if we had not some more and l)etter drivers. 

 The deer began to scatter and eat everywhere. Per was too heavy 

 for so much runnhig, and I being disabled by yesterday's accident to 

 the extent that I had to sit on the sled and could do no more than 

 drive after the herd and bark in place of the dogs. Two poor dogs 

 were supposed to follow the herd, but they were not acquainted with 

 Per and so they soon returned to the camp. At 11 o'clock we were 

 tired and disgusted over the result of our labor, and so we stopped 

 to make tea and wait for Spein and Sara to come. When our lunch- 

 eon was over the ones waited for came. Per and Michael and one 

 dog at once followed with the herd, and at 4 o'clock we made camp, 

 fully satisfied of having traveled some 20 miles, and to our great sur- 

 prise all the rest of our part}^ came to camp with the herd half an 

 hour later. 



The weather has been very dark and threatening all day, with a 

 northeasterly wind blowing hard. It started to snow this evening, 

 but it soon stopped again. What should we do if an old-fashioned 

 blizzard should start to sweep this level country, which affords no 

 shelter at all, especially as there are some small children. One in 

 the party is onl}^ 3 months old and another about H or 2 years. 

 It certainly behooves us to hurry on to more hospitable regions. 



Tuesday, December 1. — At 6 o'clock this morning we were all ready 

 to start on our journey, but to our sorrow it began to snow very heavily, 

 so we did not dare to leave camp before daylight. A couple of hours 

 later we started off in spite of the snow and did well. About 10 

 o'clock the snow ceased to fall, but it has remained very cloudy and 

 dark all day. A northeasterly wind has been blowing from morning 

 till night. We have traveled fast and far. After having gone a 

 couple of miles we struck ice. It was a lake, the length of wliich 

 must have been at least 10 miles. On the latter was less snow, but 

 still we did exceedingly well there also. Having reached the distant 

 shore of the second lake we began to look about for a place to steep 



