INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 99 



few days earlier, so as to be sure to come on time. In Golofnin I took 

 Rev. O. P. Anderson with us as a witness, and continued onward to 

 Nome, where we arrived in the evening of January 31. Mary and 

 lier party arrived there the same day. To our sorrow, we found 

 that the date had been changed and the trial set for the 29th of Feb- 

 ruary instead of between the 1st and the 10th. Mr. Bruner, our 

 attorney, went with me to Hon. Alf. S. Moore, and after hearing with 

 what costs and trouble a journey like ours was undertaken he kindly 

 changed the date and asked to hear our trouble on February 15. 

 Meanwhile I intended to make a trip to Port Clarence, but as I ought 

 to visit Cape Prince of Wales also at the same time and as it was not 

 possible to make both places in the eight or nine days given, I did not 

 go at all; and it was well that I did not, because the days passed 

 rapidly by under the burden of some very important work before the 

 15tli. The 15th came and the 16th also, and in the evening of that 

 day the jury closed by sending in a verdict for the defendant. Mary 

 was considered free from all Lindseth's claims and Lindseth never 

 had been employed by Mary. And thus Mary, with her herd, was 

 saved from ruin. 



Just as the business for which we had come to Nome was finished, 

 it was my intention to go to Teller and Cape Prince of Wales, as 

 Doctor Jackson had suggested, but conditions developed which 

 entirely changed my programme. An opportunity was unexpectedly 

 presented to demonstrate in a more special way the utility of the 

 reindeer to the white population of Alaska and at the same time to 

 earn quite a little sum of money for the herders. It was the question 

 of taking a contract to haul 7 tons of freight from Fish River to the 

 Imachuck country. This was my position : Either I should take the 

 contract or else the deer would not have a chance to demonstrate 

 what they could do and how much they excel dogs, horses, and mules 

 when difficult traveling is in question. But should I take it, my orig- 

 inal plan must of necessity undergo a complete change. Time would 

 not allow me to go by way of Port Clarence and Cape Prince of Wales, 

 but I would then have to go back to Golofnin and there gather as 

 many deer as possible and go on to the destination of the freight, and 

 then continue my way north to Cape Blossom, wliile the herders were 

 to return to Fish River after their second loads, and then meet two 

 more men from Unalakleet, who were to bring 15 or 18 deer from 

 that herd to join the Golofnin deer and men in their work. It was 

 only after a great deal of consideration that I dared to tackle the 

 matter — not for fear of not being able to carry it tlirough, but because 

 of the revolution such an undertaking would cause the scheduled 

 plan of my travel. But finally, together with O. P. Anderson from 

 Golofnin, T signed the contract and agreed to take 3 tons of oats and 

 4 tons of ha}^ across the Seward Peninsula from Fish River to Chicago 



