of the natives with wlioui the}' were surrounded, und of the relief that 

 would be afforded by the introduction of domestic reindeer in that 

 section, that they asked that the reindeer might be thus introduced. 



A request has also been received from missionaries in Alaska con- 

 nected with the Swedish Evangelical Union Mission for the privilege 

 of purchasing $20,000 worth of domestic reindeer for the purpose of 

 introducinu' them among the native adherents of their mission 

 stations. 



REINDEER ATTRACTINC! ATTENTION IN CANADA. 



The success of the United States Government's introduction of rein- 

 deer into Alaska has attracted the attention of thinking minds in 

 Canada, and a pul)lic sentiment is growing in favor of a movement 

 on the part of the Canadian Government to introduce the reindeer 

 industry among the Eskimo population in the regions of Hudson Ba}^, 

 Great Slave Lake, und in fact the whole of arctic and subarctic Can- 

 ada, so that it will not be necessary to feed them at public expense, on 

 account of the growing scarcity of food supplies in that section. 



REINDEER FOOD. 



During the year interesting letters were received through the State 

 Department from Mr. Victor Ek, vice and acting vice-consul at Hel- 

 singfors, Russia; Edward D. Winslow, consul-general at Stockholm, 

 Sweden, and W. R. Holloway, consul-general at St. Petersburg, 

 Russia, with reference to the natural food of the reindeer in their 

 respective sections of the countiy. 



RETURN OF REINDEER TO THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, 

 ANTISARLOOK, AND OTHERS. 



On January 20, 1898, Lieut. D. H. Jarvis, R. C. S., in charge of 

 the relief expedition to the ice-imprisoned whalers at Point Barrow, 

 borrowed from Antisarlook, an Eskimo living near Point Rodney, 

 Alaska, 133 reindeer; and on January 25, from Mr. AV. T. Lopp, at 

 Cape Prince of Wales, representing the American Missionary Asso- 

 ciation, 292 reindeer, making a total borrowed for the Government of 

 425. These reindeer were loaned to the United States Treasury Depart- 

 ment with the understanding that they were to be replaced in the 

 sununer of 1898, together with the estimated increase in the herd for 

 the coming season, and if for any cause the}' wei'e not returned during 

 the season of 1898, that the increase of the followmg years until the 

 debt was paid be also taken into account. 



In the summer of 1898 there were due, under the above arrange- 

 ment, to the American Missionary Association 432 reindeer and to 

 Antisarlook 213, making a total of G15 to be replaced by the Govern- 

 ment. The Government, however, was unable to procure during the 



