DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALi.SKA. 153 



covered with a thin and very sensitive slimy membrane, which serves as food to the 

 larva?; when full grown they creep hack into the nose, causing the animal to sneeze 

 and throw out the larva'. 



The hornets attack with preference the younger animals, having a thinner skin, 

 which gives the larva easier admittance. 



These larva* impair very much the value of the hides which sometimes look as if 

 riddled with bullets. 



The tumors, caused by the larva', are so tender that the mere touch hrings the 

 animal down on its knees to avoid being touched. 



The smallest number of reindeer considered sufficient to a Lapland family is 150 

 (100 cows and 50 oxen), hut even this small number requires a large area (of terri- 

 tory), as the reindeer lives only off the moss and the moss can not be cultivated and 

 gathered, it must be eaten where it grows. 



It is fortunate for the Laplanders that the plains where they live can never bo 

 inhabited by farming people or utilized in any other way; they need not fear being 

 driven away (as the Indians in the United States). 



The reindeer moss (Cladonia rangifi ri mis) is grayish white when dried, but with 

 a greenish shade when moist; it takes its nourishment chiefly from the air, avidly 

 absorbing the humidity, which makes it swell and become elastic; in a dry condi- 

 tion, however, it is very brittle (crisp). It contains flour and gelatin stuff, which 

 makes it nourishing to the reindeer and cattle. It grows very slow; when eaten by 

 the reindeer which only eat the tops and fine parts of the plants, the moss requires 

 about twenty years to regain full size. If taken up with the roots it will hardly 

 grow 7 again. 



On the Scandinar Peninsula the Laplanders are never interfered with by the pop- 

 ulation; they are not in the way, occupying only districts which can not be utilized 

 by the Scandinavians, and the trade in reindeer skins and meat is a very lucrative 

 one to the merchants in the neighboring towns. The governments in Sweden and 

 Norway have declared that the land required for the existence of the Laplanders in 

 the mountains, should not be sold. It was also agreed upon in a compromise in the 

 year 1751 between Sweden and Norway, that in the event of war the movements of 

 the Laplanders from the one country to the other should not be interfered with. I 

 believe that the same compromise was made with Russia too, the same year, but 

 canceled in the year 1852 by the Russian Government, forbidding the Norwegian 

 Laplanders to use the reindeer fields in Russian Finland, whereupon the Norwe- 

 gian Government in 1854 passed a law forbidding the Russian (Finland) Laplanders 

 to use the Norway fields. 



Philadelphia, Pa., April 11, 1S93. 



Dear Sir. I am sorry to say I have not received answer from the partner of my 

 cousin from Toomro. My brother wrote me yesterday he had talked with a moun- 

 tain Lapp about dogs and got the fellow information. 



It is so difficult to train a dog satisfactorily that a Lapp will not sell a good one 

 under 100 to 125 kroner (1 krone equals about 28 cents,) and that the Lapps do 

 not like to sell them; whereas common Lapp dogs (not trained on reindeer, but 

 used as common domestic animals) can be had for 25 to 35 kroner. 



He further says that wounds caused by insects, and also lung diseases, are not 

 unfrequent. 



If you can take a moment's leisure, please read the inclosed letter from a friend in 

 Scut i le, an uncommonly clever and enterprising gentleman, who would like to work 

 for the colonization of Alaska. I am also interested, as in Fairhaven there has 

 been organized a fishing company, backed by four millionaires, with the purpose of 

 sending vessels to Alaska for catching herring, cod, etc., and I have been invited 



