170 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OP 



and watch must be kept by night and clay if they roam about near the reindeer sta- 

 tion. A good marksman will usually drive them away alter having killed from nine 

 to ten out of their number, but the huntsman has to be outdoors a great deal, aud 

 must mind neither cold nor strong winds. In order to make the reindeer tame to 

 the touch of one's hand, one should feed them twice a week with salt. In winter 

 there should be special tracts kept for them. 

 Please inform me in case you desire any further information. 

 Truly, yours, 



John Floht. 

 Brandon, Minn. 



Seattle, Wash., February 28, ISO 4. 

 Sheldon Jackson, Esq. : 



In an earlier letter I told you that I speak Russian, but I have, moreover, a 

 knowledge of the merchandise and articles mostly needed by the Russian Samoides 

 or Eskimos, and I can easily arrange it thus, that the reindeer, as many as you 

 want, can during the winter be brought over the ice alive, in exchange for mer- 

 chandise. The stations can soon be erected, in fact already for the winter, between 

 Port Clarence and Nulato (Yukon River) with stopping places at Golovin Pay. 

 Moss should be gathered and accumulated in right time for shipping in the fall to 

 the stopping places where no such food can be found. 



In case you find my request regarding salary too high, you may reduce the sum 

 for the first year, until you find out about my intelligence and what I am able to 

 accomplish. 



I hope, in meantime, to hear from you, and remain, 

 Very respectfully, yours, 



II. Datil. 



Stella, Oneida County, Wis., February 28, 1S04. 

 Dr. Sheldon Jackson: 



I received your favor of February 22, and see from your letter that you wish 

 to be informed of the manner of treatment of reindeer in Lapland, and I shall try to 

 comply with your request as well as it is within my power. I could give a much 

 better account if I could make use of the Lapland language and terms. However, 

 my wife is not familiar with this language and does not know how to spell Lapland 

 words, for which reason I will try to explain myself in the Norwegian. (My wife 

 is writing this. I myself write badly, having acquired writing only after I was 

 grown up.) 



I will first mention that it is impossible for us Laplanders to live on the mountainous 

 ranges without reindeer, who provide us with everything we eat and dress ourselves 

 with. I was brought up by a comparatively poor Laplander, and I do not remember 

 him to have owned ever more than 63 reindeer at a time, and for 7 reindeer he kept 

 1 dog, while for (30 he had 3 dogs. The summer was our busiest season, and we did 

 not move about much while the reindeer were giving milk, of which mother pre- 

 pared cheese, etc. We built huts of staffs (timber raised on end, not horizontally), 

 that were connected by means of birch-tree bast at the upper ends, leaving a hole for 

 the smoke to escape. The reindeer cows were milked twice a day, but only those 

 whose calves had been killed during the spring. The bucks (oxen, they call them) 

 we used for driving, but only at times when we moved from place to place, whenever 

 the food had given out for the reindeer and no more moss or reindeer grass could be 

 found. 



The reindeer can not be milked during the winter on account of their calving in 

 the spring, and besides they must work too hard in order to obtain food from under- 

 neath the snow. During the harvest time and part of the winter, after the reindeer 



