DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 51 



and the bright, intelligent eyes of this useful animal will soon convey 

 to the brain behind them the fact that you are their master 5 and the 

 worst is over. 



After a great many trials during the past winter, in which the 

 capacity of reindeer for traveling was pretty thoroughly demonstrated, 

 I feel that it is safe to say that, with good roads and the deer in good 

 condition, 25 miles a day for a journey of a couple of hundred miles or 

 so is about what they are capable of doing. I do not think they should 

 be urged on a journey of this distance to a pace exceeding 3 or 4 miles 

 an hour, and this would give them an opportunity to pick their feed 

 and rest. 



I have heard of reindeer in Lapland making 18 miles an hour and 

 100 miles a day, but I believe it is an extraordinary statement. They 

 may be able to travel at the rate of 18 miles an hour, or even 30, but it 

 would only be for a short distance, and 1 doubt if, except under excep 

 tionally tine conditions, 100 miles could be made in one day, and the 

 deer even then would be of little value, except for their hide. 1 



The longest distance I have made in one day was about 30 miles. 

 It was along the northern shore of Bering Sea, where the ice was very 

 rough, obliging us to walk the deer most of the way and pick our way 

 over the rough places. Fully ten hours were consumed in making the 

 distance, and had the roads been good we could have probably made 

 10 miles farther much easier and in the same time. It was a day fol- 

 lowing one in which they traveled 20 miles, and on that day, before I 

 finally got them turned in the right direction, they ran away several 

 times, and for an hour or more wore themselves out and myself, too, in 

 their efforts to get away from me. 



I will here state that it is verj^ seldom, in making a start with deer, 

 however well broken they maybe to drive, that they do not start away 

 on a dead run, and for a little while it is next to impossible to control 

 them at such times. The only thing to do is to devote all your energies 

 to keep on the sled, and sooner or later the deer will slacken their pace 

 and respond to your pull on the lines. 



Undoubtedly the canter or loping gait is the natural one for reindeer, 

 but in driving to the sled they trot as squarely as a pair of thorough- 

 bred horses. They hold their nozes on a straight line with their backs, 

 and the hind feet overreach the fore ones with every stride, thus making 

 better time than they appear to be doing. 



It is certainly a pretty sight to witness two or three reindeer teams 

 trotting along, one ahead of the other, on a bright, frosty morning. 

 Their gait is so smooth and even that the motion of the sled is hardly 

 felt as it glides over the hard crust, and when the deer obey the pulling 

 ion the lines, as they easily learn to do, a pleasanter team to drive could 

 hardly be desired. 



1 Mr. Brace was inexperienced in driving reindeer and did not secure good average 

 results. — Editoii. 



