INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 107 



The boys suggested the postponement of the dehvery until warm 

 weather, l)ut I told them that we had agreed to deliver them during 

 the winter and we must carry out our agreement. 



They said the only way was to drive the whole herd to the Teller 

 reindeer station, where they could have the advice and assistance 

 of the Laplander there, for the herders at the cajie have never had 

 the benefit of instruction from the Laplander, so that all they know 

 of the deer business is what they have picked up themselves. During 

 my first season here a Lapp, w^ho was married to a native woman, 

 visited the village and spent a few days with the herders in the 

 deer camp. The boys told me that they learned more about the 

 deer in those few days than they ever knew before. 



When we reached Teller with the herd it was in early February, 

 and the Laplander showed the boys how to handle the deer and 

 separate those to be sold from the rest. On account of storms this 

 work took over two weeks, as they had to handle the deer very care- 

 fully on account of the danger of killing the unborn fawns. 



The 168 were separated from the others, but 2 escaped back 

 into our herd and returned to the herding grounds, about 40 miles 

 northeast from the cape. Those 2 deer are still in the herd, and 

 1 of them has given birth to a male fawn, so that we have those 

 to be dehvered with the others bought from the herd this summer. 



On account of the lack of a corral I have never been able to enu- 

 merate the deer in the herd durmg my two years as superintendent, 

 but I learned in Teller last winter that the herders there always make 

 corrals of willows, and I contemplate making a corral in that w^ay 

 tliis fall and marking and enumerating the deer, for there are plenty 

 of good willows at the winter feeding ground. 



During the year 66 of the mission deer have been slaughtered and 

 42 have died or been injured so that they had to be killed; also, 48 

 of the deer belonging to the herders have been slaughtered and 35 

 died or killed on account of injuries, making 191 deaths during the 

 year, with 166 dehvered in Teller, a decrease in the number of 357, 

 and during the spring 374 fawns were born. 



Inclosed find a tabulated list of the owners and the number 

 owned by each m this herd on June 30, according to the tally kept 

 in the herder's log book. 



Hugh Lee, Superintendent. 



Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 



Washington, D. G. 



Wales, Alaska, August 1, 1904. 

 Sir: I have spent the past week at the Cape reindeer camp 

 just south of Tin City. While there they strengthened the old corral, 



