DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 71) 



piece of ivory an inch in diameter. This is used whenever a louse is 

 perambulating a part of the back that cannot bo reached by hand, and 

 if a visitor calls at another's house it is considered a breach of Eskimo 

 etiquette not to offer him at once a koom-oon. 



The artigecs,or coats worn by the natives, are made large enough at 

 the armpits to slip the arm out easily, and he is thus able to get his 

 hag shaped jacket off without help. This enlargement of the sleeves 

 serves also the double purpose of allowing him to draw his arms out 

 and hug his body, if cold, and to give them free scope to scratch, an 

 amusement they all indulge in to a great extent. 



Our house accommodations have been so limited and our duties ol 

 such a nature as to require the presence of natives in the house more 

 or less. For instance, the herders come home regularly to make their 

 report on the condition of the deer, when returning from the herd. 

 Others come here to trade; others on a thousand different errands; 

 and they doubtless left more or less on each visit, which sooner or 

 later found good quarters on our persons. 



We enforced the rule strictly, that natives should not come to our 

 house unless for some particular object, and they always managed to 

 find one, though sometimes trivial. Sometimes they would come to our 

 door nearly frozen, and to refuse them admittance would be downright 

 cruelty. Besides the exposures we underwent at the station, when 

 traveling of course we generally had to sleep in their houses, and such 

 occasions were quite frequent. So, until we can get so situated as to 

 be able to have one room at least where natives will not be allowed to 

 enter, we have got to grin and bear it, as white men living in the Arc- 

 tic country must learn to do in many other things. 



Our bedding consisted entirely of reindeer skins. We adopted the 

 Eskimo habit of stripping entirely naked on retiring, and with the 

 furs of the skins next to the body slept warmly, and in the morning 

 got up feeling refreshed and without experiencing that tired feeling so 

 often felt in cold countries in winter, having slept under a half dozen 

 or more comforters. 



The natives about the station were given to understand that Ave 

 would take decided grounds in the matter of dogs disturbing the rein- 

 deer, and they knew orders had been given to the herders to shoot any 

 dog seen in the vicinity of the herd. 



This rule was rigidly observed, and I am glad to say that it became 

 necessary to kill only five dogs during the year, and in each case we 

 settled with the natives by paying them about $1.50 for each dog and 

 they were perfectly satisfied. The visiting natives were especially 

 careful not to allow their dogs to get among the deer, and not one 

 among those that were here was killed. This seems strange, as they 

 were allowed to run about as they pleased. But I have discussed this 

 matter at considerable extent in another part of my report. 



Puriug the winter we lost five dogs by a peculiar disease that pre- 



