96 TNTKODUCTION OK DOMP^STIO REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



According to instructions received, I left Unalakleet on August 

 26 en route for Andreafski to see the herders, Spein and Sara, who 

 had been left in Andreafski Valley last winter, after a vain attempt 

 to reach Bethel, Kuskokwim, and also to arrange for their provisions 

 until in the winter, when they were to be moved to their destination 

 on the Kuskokwim. I arrived at Andreafski on August 31 at 10 

 o'clock a. m. A boat and a native were hhed, lunch prepared, and 

 in a little over three hours I was at the herders' camp, 12 miles up 

 the Andreafski River. 



Mrs. Per Spein had given birth to a child only four days previously, 

 and there she lay with the infant, having very little to eat and no 

 milk, this article not even to be had in Andreafski. An order was 

 taken for provisions for both families for three months' time, which 

 I promised to send them from St. Michael. The herd was inspected 

 and found in good condition. The feeding ground near Andreafski 

 is most excellent, and the deer had been doing very well. At 6 

 p. m. the same day I was back again at Andreafski, and as the 

 steamer Leah, the boat on which I came up, was there yet, I bought 

 some provisions and sent back to Mrs. Spein for her use, until the 

 order from St. Michael could have time to arrive. Mr. A. Stecker 

 was informed by the letter, which was sent by George Fredericks, 

 who w^as just ready to go to the Kuskokwim in regard to our plans 

 for moving the herd in the early part of the winter. The next morn- 

 ing, September 1, the steamer Rock Island steamed in on her way 

 to St. Michael, and on September 2, at 10.30 a. m., she arrived at St. 

 Michael. The orders for provisions were filled at the military post 

 and the goods freighted up the river on the Northern Commercial 

 Company's boats, and that same evening I arrived at Unalakleet 

 aboard the mail steamer Meteor. 



The 2d day of September the mission herd was counted and 

 marked. 



In the middle of September J. T. Lindseth brought suit against 

 Mary Antisarlook, one of the chief Eskimo reindeer owners, to 

 recover, as he said, money which he had paid on her account; also 

 for work which he claimed to have done in Mary's employ. Though 

 late in the season, Mary and I had to leave Unalakleet for Nome 

 on the 9th of October, there to report upon the summons. Ice had 

 then already begun to form on the Unalakleet River, making it very 

 hard to get out to the open sea in one of the small native schooners 

 of the place. A strong northerly wind was blowing, which, before 

 we were able to reach the outer end of the channel of the river, 

 had driven the water- out so that we were not able to get over the 

 sand bars. There we hung, and had to be content from 2 o'clock 

 p. m. till after 9 in the evening, when we fuially got away en route 

 to St. Michael. The next morning, October 10, we arrived, and in 



