DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 179 



in the middle of the winter in some inclosure, into which the herds must be driven 

 or decoyed by one of the tamed driving reindeer, or a reindeer trained for driving 

 with sleighs. Whenever the herders remove their herds in the summer or winter, 



these tamed reindeer are also used as leaders; one of the herders leads the first rein- 

 deer and all the others follow by themselves, while some dogs and a herder remain 

 in the rear of the Hock. In the summer the reindeer are kept in inclosures during 

 the night, and during the day these inclosures have to be fumigated to keep off the 

 gnats and gadtlies which persecute the reindeer, who jump into the smoke all by 

 themselves. v\ henever they are attacked by these insects. 



The cows can be milked, and their milk, which is most excellent, is used as cream 

 for coffee, or cheese is prepared of it. The milk can be preserved quite fresh for 

 the winter season if kept in cold cellars. The reindeer are substitutes with us for 

 horses and cows, and furnish with their skins material for clothing and other 

 articles. Their horns are collected and glue is boiled. 



It is best to castrate the reindeer when they are 3, 4, or 5 years old, and then they 

 are called oxen, and are trained to pull pulkhas (sleighs). They cover with ease a 

 distance of about 10 miles (Swedish) per day, but they can make 20 miles if neces- 

 sary; however, this is too great a strain for them; they are in fact ruined, and unlit 

 to be killed for the sake of their meat as food. 



I beg you to excuse me, if this letter is too lengthy, and sign myself, 

 Very respectfully, yours, 



C. O. Gran st rom, 

 Calumet Post-Office, Box 634, Haugliton County, Mick. 



Dr. Sheldon Jackson. 



Winnipeg, Canada. 

 Dear Sir: Those who occupy themselves almost exclusively with reindeer rear- 

 ing in Sweden and Norway are in most cases Laplanders who own or are in charge 

 of herds counting from 600 to 1,000 heads, and as they generally are married they 

 are assisted by their wives in takiug care of the herds, besides by 1 boy and 1 girl, 

 or 4 persons in all, for a medium number of reindeer. There are, of course, Lap- 

 landers who own larger herds, and then they have a larger number of herders. If 

 the Laplander is a fine skee runner (the women are just as skillful as the men, and 

 one hardly ever sees a Laplander or a Lapland woman on foot, i. e., walking, during 

 the snowfalls) and moves quickly over the loose snow, then he finds his well-trained 

 dogs to he of the greatest help to him ; he could, indeed, not get along without them, 

 especially when he undertakes his annual migrations towards the seacoast, which 

 usually takes place at harvest time, partly because those regions are safer from 

 wolves aud lynxes, that cause much destruction among reindeer during the winter; 

 partly because they are anxious to sell their meats which they stored for the year, 

 and partly in order to buy up provisions aud other necessities, e. g., coffee, salt, gun- 

 powder, etc., which the Laplander can easily carry back with him in the spring, while 

 yet the lakes and marsh lands are covered with ice. Large full-grown bucks can 

 drag a load of 80 to 90 kegs, besides the sleighs, which are constructed thus that they 

 may easily glide over the snow and swim on the water without the articles stored 

 therein being spoiled, and if they lose their balance they soon straighten themselves 

 up again on their keel. The reindeer are satisfied with a comparatively small amount 

 and meager food, consisting principally of island lichen or rein moss, i. e., a species 

 of white moss that grows upon high mountains in cool places, and a certain kind of 

 grass that grows in marsh lands and shallow lakes in the northern part of Sweden. 

 The reindeer feed on this during the harvest season and in the winter, luting off the 

 upper ends of the grass that are above the ice. There grows, moreover, a certain 

 kind of a capillaceous moss upon the steins and branches of fir and pine trees which 

 the reindeer likes. 



