36 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



the belief that the number given above is amply sufficient. I will even 

 go farther, and say that the same number of herders could safely care 

 for two or three thousand. Indeed, it has appeared to us that the larger 

 the number of reindeer the more easily they were handled in the field. 



Another point in this connection is that if for any cause a larger 

 force were required, as, for instance, looking for stray deer, or getting 

 them closely bunched together, there are always natives enough about 

 who would cheerfully render any help needed, and in this, like every 

 other kind of work, they are easily paid with a liberal supply of food. 



While in some respects the employment of Siberians could easily be 

 dispensed with, there are features connected with the business that 

 perhaps make it best to continue the practice for the present. The mere 

 matter of herding reindeer is one that the Alaskan Eskimos are just as 

 competent to discharge as the Siberians and when they have learned 

 to throw the lasso and harness a reindeer they have accomplished the 

 hardest part of the work. The presence of the Siberians made the 

 men in charge feel more secure, and when winter once sets in they are 

 as much separated from Siberia as though they were in another world, 

 for there is absolutely no communication between the two sides for 

 eight months, or until the ice disappears from the straits in the sum- 

 mer. They therefore realize that their only real friends are the white 

 men at the station. If from any cause the Alaskans are disposed to 

 give up the work, the Siberians can care for the deer until other help 

 is secured. 



In the course of four or five years there ought to be a sufficient num- 

 ber of Alaskans w 7 ho have gleaned a knowledge of the business to make 

 it possible to dispense with Siberians entirely, and the $75 per year 

 paid each of them could be used for some other purpose. 



The duties of a herder, except when one or more reindeer are 

 wanted to be broken to the sled, are by no means laborious. The rein- 

 deer are so quiet and cause them so little trouble that they find ample 

 time to sleep, as is shown by the fact that, even after their watch in a 

 long winter night, they return to the station in the morning apparently 

 as fresh as if they had just crawled out of a sleeping bag. 



In summer they are so clothed that, although it maybe raining, they 

 can sit down and enjoy a comfortable snooze, and in mid winter, unless 

 the wind howls pretty fiercely, they crouch down on the snow, much 

 as an Eskimo dog does, and sleep soundly. 



The reindeer seldom wander around, and will feed in one locality 

 for days. They eat awhile and then lie down, and Avhen their appetite 

 again moves them they go to eating again, and this may be said to be 

 their only diversion from one year's end to another. The females are 

 a little inclined to rove about toward spring, but this disposition is 

 quieted as soon as the young ones are born. 



The Siberians tell me that reindeer are more easily herded here than 

 in their country, which is doubtless accounted for by the tact that they 



