150 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OP 



intended work to give a description of the Laplanders. Should you, however, 

 desire this I am at your service. I have made the translation as short as possible, 

 omitting all I considered not to the point— suitable to your purpose. 



I should like to go to Alaska at some future time; Could you tell me the expenses ? 



It is a common belief of experts in Norway that the reindeer will decrease ; that 

 in some future time there will be lack of reindeer-moss, as the plants grow too 

 slowly, in thirty to fifty years where it has been entirely consumed, and in twenty 

 years in places where only the tops and fine plants have been eaten by the reindeer 

 which are more fastidious where there is abundance. 



What do you think of an experiment to get Laplanders over from Norway, trans- 

 planting them in Alaska? It is only a suggestion. I know too little of Alaska to 

 be able to use arguments, nor could I tell at the moment the modus operandi for an 

 experiment of that kind. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



N. Width. 



Rev. Sheldon Jackson. 



THE LAPLANDERS AND THEIR REINDEER. 



By N. Width. 



The Laplanders belong to the Greenland or Polar race; are small, but with sinewy 

 bodies; their skin is grayish-yellow, their faces broad, the eyes small, dark brown, 

 and oblong; the hair is plaited, the cheekbones protruding, the lips very thin, the 

 mouth very broad, and the chin very sharp; their beard is Aery thin and spare. 



The language is related to the Finlandish (spoken in Finland, now a Russian prov- 

 ince), but of not so harmonious a character. They are good-natured, pacific, and 

 very honest. They are exceedingly courageous and enduring, and are accustomed 

 to dangers and inclement weather from their very infancy. [ remember from my 

 boyhood that the women carried their infants in a box on the back (the box, 

 however, was well provided with reindeer skin) ; these boxes were fastened on poles, 

 and when the women entered the stores in the town for shopping, the poles were 

 stuck in the snow and the babies left there for hours, their small faces exposed to 

 the cold and the wind. 



A sad drawback is the love of the Laplanders for brandy, in which both sexes 

 indulge very freely; both sexes are passionate smokers. 



They are not considered as subjects of Norway and Sweden, pay no taxes, are not 

 obliged to do military service; the Christian faith was introduced among them 

 some three hundred or four hundred years ago, but with no great success; many 

 of them are still adhering to their old gods (represented by wooden images), and 

 they are suspected by the Scandinavian population (who are very superstitious in 

 the northern provinces) to be sorcerers, particularly the old women, of whom we 

 boys stood in great awe; this maybe partially justified by their extreme ugliness; 

 they are regular " witches of Endor." 



They are divided into four classes; mountain Laplanders, forest Laplanders, fish- 

 ermen, and agriculturists; by nature they are all nomads, but if they lose their 

 reindeer by beasts of prey, starvation, etc., they try other employments, always, 

 however, with the object in view to save some money, buy some reindeer, and resume 

 their mountain lite. 



They are good hunters and keen shots, not afraid of encounters with the bears and 

 the wolves. 



On the mountains fchey live in tents made of reindeer skins; some of them build 

 small huts of earth and brushwood. For their meats and other supplies they build 

 small stores standing on high poles, so as not to be reached by the wild beasts. 



