52 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



For the first 2 or 3 miles, the deer pant considerably, and if closely 

 pressed loll like cattle when warm, but they soon get their lungs full 

 of air and do not seem to labor afterwards. When traveling aloug 

 they reach down and scoop up snow to quench their thirst, without 

 slackening their pace. 



One man on a sled, with 50 or 75 pounds, is as much of a load as a 

 team of reindeer should carry for any distance. A single deer will 

 haul a man and make very good time for a short distance, and for 

 25 or 30 miles would cover the distance in eight or ten hours. 



There is one advantage in traveling with deer over dogs, namely, 

 with deer no fish or other food has to be carried, while with dogs a 

 native never thinks of starting out on a journey without dried or frozen 

 fish or seal meat, and often this constitutes a considerable portion of 

 the load he carries. In my experience I have found also that a team 

 of two deer will make quite as good time and travel as far in the same 

 length of time as a good team of six or eight dogs. 



While it is true, perhaps, that dogs will go further for a day or two, 

 they will have to rest long enough to put them in condition for travel- 

 ing again, for the deer to overtake them. Although a dog team can 

 sometimes make 70 or 80 miles in one day ; they should not be driven 

 over 25 or 30. 



Reindeer easily tire when driven in soft snow, and even when driven 

 on a walk, if the snow is 6 or 8 inches deep in an hour or two they will 

 lie down, and when they do this they are as hard to start up as a balky 

 mule. When they have rested, however, they get up and are ready to 

 go on again. 



On the ice they are as bad as oxen, their hoofs being similarly formed, 

 serving them no better purpose. 



Wood was used for fuel in the school room and in the house occu- 

 pied by the herders, and during most of the winter it was hauled by 

 our dogs, six or eight constituting a team. 



On March 19 Mr. Gibson left on a trip south, taking the dog team, 

 and I at once started hauling wood with reindeer. 



Of the ten sled- deer at the station all but three were 2 years old or 

 younger, and were broken to drive by our herders. The 3-year old deer 

 had evidently been driven to the sled but little, and, it is safe to say, 

 never had done any heavy hauling. 



On March 22 the first wood was hauled by three deer, each harnessed 

 singly to a sled, and in this condition, each accompanied by a herder, 

 they went 2 miles up the beach, loaded the sleds, and returned to the 

 station in the same time consumed by the dogs in making the trip, and 

 each deer hauled about as much wood as our full team of dogs were in 

 the habit of hauling. 



We usually sent three men with the dogs, and thus it will be seen 

 that about three times as much was accomplished with the deer. When 

 their work was done they were simply turned loose, when they found 



