318 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



one of the coolest and best-shaded situations in the Zoologi- 

 cal Park, but, at the same time, it was sheltered from sweep- 

 ing winds. We have observed no suffering on the part of 

 any of our musk-oxen during even the warmest weather of 

 midsummer. In the afternoon of the hottest days the 

 animals breathed more rapidly than usual, but there was 

 no evidence of anything approaching real distress. On the 

 whole, these animals seemed to us to develop as rapidly and 

 as perfectly as they could have done in a state of nature. 

 The adult bulls certainly compared very favourably with 

 wild-killed specimens, and if there was any deterioration 

 through living in captivity, it was not observable. These 

 animals moved about freely on the Telford macadam pave- 

 ment of their corrals sufficiently to keep their hoofs worn 

 down to a proper length, and no trimming of their hoofs ever 

 became necessary." 



Should it be decided to attempt experimentally, by the 

 establishment of musk-ox experiment stations in northern 

 Canada and Alaska, to domesticate the musk-ox, every 

 effort will be made to apply our modern knowledge of animal 

 husbandry and veterinary science to the development of 

 such new and potentially valuable domestic animals. 



REINDEER IN ALASKA 



(plate xxiii) 



Few movements undertaken for the purpose of developing 

 a new country have proved so successful and so full of in- 

 terest, as the introduction of reindeer into Alaska, where 

 they now constitute one of the greatest economic assets in 

 that potentially rich country. The first reindeer, numbering 

 171 animals, were introduced into Alaska from Siberia in 

 1892; in twenty-five years, that is, by 1917, there were 98,582 

 reindeer in Alaska; to-day there are over 100,000, and they 

 form the chief agricultural industry of a country formerly 



