REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 253 



prosecuted to a marvellously successful issue by the United 

 States government. These experiments have conclusively 

 proved the adaptability of this particular animal to do- 

 mestication in the Arctic for the service of mankind. Along 

 the sea- shore, especially, the natives have readily taken to 

 the task of propagating and using them, and already whole 

 settlements are being supplied from these new herds. One 

 Eskimo woman surnamed " Reindeer Mary" has even risen 

 to wealth, owning many hundreds of deer, and, what is more 

 important, shown herself capable in this way of consider- 

 able intellectual development. She thus indicates one line 

 at any rate, along which the natives of Alaska may hope 

 to escape extinction through the increasing contact and 

 competition with the advancing white men. 



Few other animals on the earth's surface offer as much 

 to man with so little outlay. With scarcely any aid, 

 races of men can subsist on what these beasts *alone can 

 provide. For transport they have been shown, under 

 right circumstances, to be able to compete with the Eskimo 

 dog in speed and endurance. On the Alaskan tundra, 

 where the snowfall is much like that of Labrador, they have 

 been an unqualified success. On journeys they can find 

 their own food by the way an item most important, for 

 the dogs are obliged to carry this additional, and by no 

 means inconsiderable, burden with them. Reindeer are 

 now used not only for packing over open land uncovered 

 with snow in summer-time, when dogs are entirely useless, 

 but they are in regular use for running the United States 

 mail service in the depth of an Arctic winter. Geldings 

 are said to be far more readily trained to harness than 

 stags, and are easier to keep in good physical condition. 



