DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 173 



has been turned over to the Swedes by the Laplanders. It seems as If this race must 

 perish in the near future. However, at present t hey are more protected by the state 

 than formerly, and it is indeed high time that the Government should see to the wel- 

 fare of these nomads before it is too late. 



Finding that in this country everything is carried on in a different manner from 

 that in the old country, I also think that reindeer management is varying very much 

 in its smaller details from that in Sweden. In the more important points, however, 

 I should think that it necessarily QUght to be the same. 

 With the highest consideration, I am, 



E. J. Bergstrom. 



Audubon, Minx., January 12, 1S94. 



Dear Sir: In conformity to your request for information in regard to how rein- 

 deer are treated in Lapland, I forward following instructions, although it will be 

 of little value, since you have already engaged the men who will take charge of the 

 reindeer in Alaska. 



The reindeer prefer to live on wood-overgrown, mountainous tracts, and their food 

 consists, during the winter, of moss and lichen. 



The Laplanders are, during that season, obliged to follow them, and watch that 

 there is sufficient food for the herds, and drive them from one place to another, 

 because otherwise the herds easily separate and go in different directions in order to 

 find food for themselves, and the herders are apt to lose several of their number. 

 During the summer the reindeer are kept near the mountains, in the lowland tracts, 

 and they feed then on grass, foliage, and fungus, and are less restless than during the 

 winter, or approaching the time when the cows calve. At that time great care has 

 to be taken, and the cow r s have to be constantly watched; these prefer to separate 

 from the herd and hide themselves away, preferably in thickets of underwood and 

 bushes. The calves are apt to bo killed by the bucks, who follow the cows if net 

 prevented, and for milking purposes it is necessary to build a stable (house) of 

 brushwood into which the reindeer are driven by the Laplanders when they want 

 to milk them. 



It is necessary to throw a rope around the horns of the cows while they are milked. 

 I could give you a full description of the Laplanders and their customs, but that 

 would doubtless be useless to you, wherefore I will close my letter. 



Nils Lust. 

 Dr. Sheldon Jackson. 



Bowdle, S. Dak., March 6, 1SD4. 



Dear Sir: I hereby have the honor to comply with your request of February 22, 

 1894, to give a few hints in regard to the management of reindeer in Norway or 

 Lapland. 



Norway, in its general contour, is very rocky and mountainous. It has a moun- 

 tain range that reaches from the north pole of Norway almost as far south as to the 

 capital city,Christiania. The wild reindeer was to be found numberless, but scattered 

 all over ou these mountains, except in the fall, when a man could see herds, guessed 

 to be about 10,000 in number. But after the invention of the breech-loading fire- 

 arms they have been rapidly killed out, until, a few years ago hunting of reindeer 

 was prohibited in Norway. These mountains are more or less covered with white 

 moss, reindeer moss — named so because it is the only feed that suffices for the rein- 

 deer in the winter season. They dig it up through the snow with their forefeet. 

 It is quite amusing to watch them ; for, while the big deer are digging for feed, the 

 smallest ones take advantage of the opportunity to eat, and are consequently the 



