DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 61 



was sick they wanted it killed at once. If one was injured they thought 

 it should be killed right away, and if ordered fco bring it to the station 

 to be mused they executed the order reluctantly. 



At first we thought their opposition to caring for sick deer was from 

 a selfish motive, the more deer killed the more fresh meal thee would 

 get, but we made it a practice never to give them much of a deer that 

 had been killed, ami we became convinced that their opposition to 

 nursing a deer was caused by the fact that they had never been in the 

 habit of doing it in their own country: that with them, when a deer 

 was disabled from any cause, it was killed at once. 



In almost every instance in which they expressed the opinion that the 

 deer would not recover such proved to be the case. In a few instances, 

 however, 1 believe if we had had proper shelter and proper medicines 

 we could have brought them around all right. 



On the 12th of last March a female,- years old. was reported to 

 have slipped down and broken one of her hind legs. She was ordered 

 to be brought to the station, and, finding she was with fawn, we 

 thought we would try to save her. Mr. Gibson tied her leg up with 

 splints and securely bandaged it. and in this condition she was allowed 

 to lie in the frame building' for about ten days, during which time she 

 was ted on moss. She was finally taken back to the herd, and was able 

 to hobble about and pick her feed until April, when the splints were 

 removed. It was found that the bone had not knitted together, and 

 the lower part swung about as the deer moved, and one of the hunters 

 took his knife and severed it from the rest of the leg. Xo blood came 

 from the stump and the deer got up and hobbled away, and since then 

 she appears to be thriving nicely. A few days later she gave birth to 

 a fawn, but it was puny and did not live. 



On November -7 two of our best sled deer were put in a pen built 

 for them, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they would learn to 

 eat corn meal and thrive under it. 



On September 1.") last we had twelve sacks of moss gathered, and 

 proposed to mix meal with it at first, and gradually reduce the quan- 

 tity of moss and increase that of the meal. The Siberians ridiculed 

 the idea of the deer eating moss after it had been packed away in 

 sacks when wet and allowed to freeze, and pooh-poohed the idea of 

 their eating meal at all. For the first three days neither of them would 

 eat the meal and only nibbled at the moss. Warm water was poured 

 over the moss and the meal then mixed with it thoroughly. By the 

 end of the first week they began to eat the mixture with apparent rel- 

 ish. We then commenced to reduce the quantity of moss and increase 

 that of meal from day to day until only a small handful of moss was 

 given with li pounds of meal three times a day to each deer. On the 

 tenth day one of the deer found use for his tongue, and licked the box 

 dry after eating the feed, and two days later the other deer found the 

 same use for his. On the evening of the twelfth day we gave the first 



