INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. Ill 



killed. Most of them happened to be male fawns. Their skins were 

 prime for winter clothing and their meat was marketed at York for 

 25 cents per })ound. Before leaving the reindeer camp 1 advised the 

 herders, as an experiment, to castrate about 20 fawns during the sum- 

 mer. The Lapp and Siberian custom is to wait until they are 1, 2, 

 and 3 j^ears old. I know' of no good reason why we can not follow 

 the practices of stockmen in the States in regard to this, especially 

 because reindeer mature so young. Most of the yearlings have fawns. 



The supply schooner Viking got on the Cape Prince of Wales shoal 

 here on the evening of August 4 and came ashore a total wreck. With 

 the exception of a few staples like sugar and beans, sufficient supplies 

 were saved to supply the necessary wants at the Cape. 



On August 6 the United States revenue cutter Thetis, Capt. O. C, 

 Hamlet commanding, made a hurried stop here, and I made a hasty 

 departure for the northern points in my district, a trip of seventeen 

 days. With Captain Hamlet as host, and Mr. and Mrs. Kilbuck, 

 Messrs. Collier, Washburn, and Hutchinson, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, and Doctor Driggs as fellow-sharers in his hospi- 

 tality", my time aboard was spent most pleasantly. 



On the night of August 7 we came to anchor off Cooper Whaling 

 station at Point Hope. On the following morning, in company with 

 Surgeon Call, I visited the whaling stations and the settlement sur- 

 rounding them, and was informed that there was a school population 

 in that vicinity of 30 to 40. We selected a good location for the 

 building near the stations, in case it should be decided to locate the 

 building so far from the Point Hope settlement. Walking down the 

 beach to Point Hope proper, we visited the mission and the Point 

 settlement and returned aboard about 2 p. m. Doctor Driggs, of the 

 St. Thomas Mission, seemed to think that their board could be 

 depended upon to look after the educational wants of the fast dimin- 

 ishing Point Hope settlement. As the sliip was getting under way, 

 I sent letters of instruction ashore by natives to Mr. Olsen, the car- 

 penter, and Mr. Henry Konig, better known as ''Cooper," to have the 

 house landed at the site we had selected near the whaling stations. 



On the night of August 10 we reached Point Barrow'. The whal- 

 ers w'ere all anchored or tied up to the ice w^aiting for an off shore 

 wind to make a passage for them around the Point. Rev. S. R. 

 Spriggs and Doctor Marsh came aboard about midnight and got their 

 mail. On the following morning I accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Kil- 

 buck ashore in a skin boat. We found them all busy at the mission 

 reading or answering their mail. We looked over the ground for a 

 suitable site for the new school building. Mr. Spriggs accompanied 

 me aboard about noon and the captain kindly steamed down the coast 

 15 miles and anchored off the reindeer camp, enabling me to go ashore 

 with Mr. Spriggs and liis herders to see the herd. The deer looked 



